COLUMBUS, •a city of Georgia, U.S.A., loom. S.S.W. of Atlanta, at the head of navigation on the Chattahoochee river; the county seat of Muscogee county. It is on Federal highway 8o, and is served by the Central of Georgia, the Seaboard Air Line, and the Southern railways, and by river steamers to Apalachi cola, on the Gulf of Mexico. The population was 31,125 in 1920 (29.2% negroes), and was 43,131 Federal census in 193o. Includ ing suburbs, there were over 65,000 persons living within 3m. of the county court house. Phoenix City and Girard (Ala.) lie just across the river, which is spanned by two concrete highway bridges. Columbus is one of the leading industrial centres of the South, with 1 oo plants making 200 different articles. Most of them are operated by electricity, generated from the falls of the river, which drops 362ft. in 34m. just above the city. The cotton mills have over 555,00o spindles. Other leading manufactures are brick, tile, concrete pipe, fertilizer, ice-making and refrigerating machin ery, cotton gins, textile machinery, agricultural implements, cane mills, engines, boilers, shafting and pulleys, log skidders, doors, bank and office furniture and other lumber products. The output of the factories within the city in 1927 was valued at 594, and there are many plants just outside the corporate limits. The assessed valuation of property for 1927 was $45,652,092. Columbus has a large export trade in cotton, and is the shipping point also for the pecans, peanuts, dairy products, live stock and diversified crops grown in the vicinity.
Columbus was founded in 1828 by the State of Georgia, as an outpost on the border of the Indian lands and as a vantage point from which to utilize the water-power and the transportation fa cilities of the river. It was laid out by the State engineers, with avenues and streets 99-164f t. wide and ample reservations for pub lic squares and buildings. The cotton-gin industry was established in 183 2 ; the textile industry in 1837. This was the point of em barkation for troops from the south-east during the Mexican War. During the Civil War the city ranked next to Richmond in the manufacture of supplies for the Confederate Army. On April 16, 1865, after Lee had surrendered, it was captured by a Union force under Gen. James Harrison Wilson. Hydro-electric development was begun about 1900. The first cotton-mill worked by electricity was in Columbus, and it was here artificial ice was made on a commercial scale. Columbus was also the first city in the South to establish municipal graded schools, and the first in the country to provide industrial training as part of its public-school system. In 1922 it adopted a commission-manager form of government. Muscogee county also is governed by commission.
At Ft. Benning, 8m. S. of Columbus, is the infantry school of the U.S. Army. The reservation, selected partly for its variety of terrain, consists of 97,000ac. along the river, and the person nel numbers about 5,500.