Cincinnati, Queen City on the Ohio River, was founded shortly after the American Revolution and by the middle of the nineteenth century was a booming frontier river town. Tourist brochures quote Charles Dickens, who journeyed down the Ohio River by steamboat in 1842, as finding it "a beautiful city; cheerful, thriving and animated." For the two decades before the Civil War, Cincinnati was the fastest growing city west of the Alleghenies and the sixth largest in the United States. Although the war brought a sharp decline in river trade and Chicago became the nation's inland commercial capital, Cincinnati's past left both the city and the region a rich legacy of industry and business participation in the community, as well as a pattern of urban development that frames its present situation. Built on steep hills and bluffs overlooking the Ohio River and tributaries, present-day Cincinnati has some 25 miles of municipally owned retaining walls—more than any other city in the United States. A relatively compact downtown area that is largely separated from the river by highways and sports facilities features the "nation's most complete skyway system." Much of this system, which remains open to public use 24 hours per day, is maintained by city crews under contract to more than 30 property owners through whose buildings the walkways pass. The city of Cincinnati lies within the boundaries of Hamilton County, where there are 49 local governments and county commissions that share responsibilities for government.