COLUMBUS, a city of eastern Nebraska, U.S.A., on the Loup river, just above its junction with the Platte, 87m. W. of Omaha ; the county seat of Platte county. It is at the intersection of the Lincoln and the Meridian transcontinental highways, and is served by the Union Pacific and the Burlington railways. The population in 1920 was 5,410; in 193o was by the Federal census, 6,898. It is the centre of a fertile farming region, that raises corn, wheat, alfalfa, hogs, cattle and poultry, and has several factories. The city was founded about 1857.