Columbus (Georgia)

Columbus (Georgia), city in western Georgia, a consolidated jurisdiction with Muscogee County. Columbus is a port at the head of navigation on the Chattahoochee River, opposite Phenix City, Alabama, to which it is connected by bridge. Columbus is a regional transportation, trade, cultural, and manufacturing hub. It has many textile, food-processing, and metalworking industries and a large credit card processing operation. Also important to the city’s economy is the adjacent Fort Benning, a large United States Army infantry post. Commercial air transportation is through Columbus Metropolitan Airport.

The city is the seat of Columbus State University (1958) and a technical college. Local points of interest include the Confederate Naval Museum, which features remains of two vessels from the American Civil War (1861-1865) recovered during the 1960s; the Columbus Museum; and the restored 1871 Springer Opera House. Heritage Corner, the city’s historic district, includes among several antebellum houses the home once occupied by Dr. J. S. Pendleton, who produced the formula for Coca-Cola. The Riverwalk stretches from Columbus to the National Infantry Museum in Fort Benning.

The community, named for Christopher Columbus, was established by an act of the Georgia state legislature in 1828. Prior inhabitants of the region, Native Americans of the Yuchi people, were relocated to the west side of the Chattahooche River. In the same year the city incorporated, and the first textile mills were erected at the falls of the river. In addition to making textiles, Columbus also developed as an early iron-manufacturing point, and during the American Civil War, it burgeoned into a major center for production of war supplies for the Confederacy. The city was taken by Union forces on April 16, 1865, in one of the last battles of the war. The city was consolidated with Muscogee County in 1971, the first city and county government in Georgia to unite.

Columbus covers a land area of 560 sq km (216 sq mi), with a mean elevation of 79 m (260 ft). According to the 2000 census, whites are 50.4 percent of the population, blacks 43.7 percent, Asians 1.5 percent, Native Americans 0.4 percent, and Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders 0.1 percent. The remainder are of mixed heritage or did not report race. Hispanics, who may be of any race, are 4.5 percent of the people. Population 169,441 (1980); 179,278 (1990); 185,781 (2000); 185,271 (2005 estimate).