COLUMBIA, a borough of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., amid beautiful scenery on the Susquehanna river (a mile wide at this point), 8om. W. by N. of Philadelphia. It is on the Lincoln highway, and is served by the Pennsylvania and the Reading railways. The population in 193o was 11,349 by the Federal Census. Columbia is a busy trading and shipping centre, and has numerous and varied manufacturing industries, with an output in 1927 valued at $14,864,579. Columbia was settled by Quakers in 1726, and was incorporated in 1814. It was one of the places considered by the Congress in 1790 for the permanent site of the national capital.