COLUMBUS, the capital of Ohio, U.S.A., near the centre of the State, at the confluence of the Scioto and the Olentangy rivers; a port of entry and the county seat of Franklin county. It is on Federal highways 23 and 4o; has an air-port, Norton Field; and is served by the Baltimore and Ohio, the Chesapeake and Ohio, the Hocking Valley, the New York Central, the Norfolk and West ern and the Pennsylvania railways. The area is 35.5sq.miles. The population in 1920 was 237,031, of whom 16,055 were foreign bom white and 22,181 were negroes; and was 290,564 in 193o by U. S. census. The local estimate for 1928, including suburbs, was 314,63o. The city lies on a level plain. Within its limits are 13 highway and five railway bridges. The State House, constructed between 1839 and 1859 at a cost of $1,400,000, is a dignified building in Doric style (3o4 by 184ft., with a rotunda 158ft. high) of grey limestone from a local quarry, set in a square of exactly ten acres. On the Scioto river, near the capitol, around both ends of a beautiful concrete bridge, a civic centre was in process of development in 1928, including a new City Hall to re place the one destroyed by fire in 1921, and on the side of the river the central high school (completed 1925). A planning com mission was created in 192o, and zoning ordinances are in force. The water supply is obtained from the Scioto river by means of the Griggs dam (1904-05) and the O'Shaughnessy dam (1922-24), impounding respectively 1,500,000,00o and 5,000,000,000 gallons. Both dams are in parklands of great beauty owned by the city. Filtering and softening plants and a municipal electric-light plant were completed in 1908. Natural gas is available from the fields of eastern Ohio. The city has 71 public and 21 parochial schools; libraries aggregating 600,000 volumes to which the public has access; 431m. of paved streets; 521m. of sewers; 15 hospitals; four municipal markets; and ,Io2ac. in public parks. The State fair grounds of ii5ac. lie just outside. Columbus is the seat of the Ohio State university (q.v.), of Capital university (185o) includ 'ing the Evangelical Lutheran theological seminary, of the State penitentiary and of State institutions for the insane, the feeble minded, the blind and the deaf. There are three daily papers, in cluding the Ohio State Journal (estab. 1811), which is widely known throughout the country. The private philanthropic agen cies of the city are financed jointly through a "community fund," with an annual budget of over $600,000. The city's assessed valu ation of property in 1927 was $584,858,99o.
Ohio State university occupies a beautiful campus 3m. N. of the State House. Its campus and farm cover I,Iooac., and the total value of its plant is more than $15,000,000. Its magnificent stadium (opened in 1922) in a 92ac. tract on the bank of the Olentangy, covers ioac. and has 72,000 seats. Within the city limits is Ft. Hayes (formerly Columbus Barracks), which in 1922 became headquarters of the V. Corps Area of the U.S. Army. In East Columbus, on a reservation of 28iac., is one of the three general reserve depots of the army. The warehouses, built during the World War, have a floor area of 2,406,334sq.ft., and the supplies usually in storage represent a value of $15o,000,000. Norton (aviation) field, near the depot, was established by the Federal Government in 1923.
Columbus has a large trade in coal from the Ohio fields in the neighbourhood, and in wool, live stock, grain and other agricul tural products. Its jobbing market serves a territory in which there are 22,000 dealers and 2,000,000 consumers. Eleven insur ance companies have their home offices here. The manufacturing industries are important and diversified, with an aggregate out put in 1927 valued at $169,067,993. Among the leading manu factures are iron and steel products (notably mining machinery and steel railway cars), shoes, glass, teeth, flour, cereal products, caskets, agricultural implements and automobiles. There are several oil refineries and meat-packing plants. Postal receipts in 1926 amounted to $2,917,608; bank debits to individual accounts in 1927 were $2,012,593,000.
This region was opened to settlement in 1787. In 1797 the first log cabin within the present limits of Columbus was built at Franklinton, on the west bank of the Scioto, which became the county seat when Franklin county was organized in 1803. Through the enterprise of lour citizens who offered the General Assembly land for a State house and a penitentiary on the higher ground east of the Scioto, that site was chosen for the seat of government, and in 1812 a town was there laid out on the "refugee lands" appropriated by Congress for Canadians and Nova Scotians who had sympathized with the Colonies in the recent struggle. It was named after Christopher Columbus, because "to him we are primarily indebted in being able to offer the refugees a resting place." The first State House, a plain two-storey brick building, was completed in 1814. The borough of Columbus was incorpo rated in 1816; it became the county seat in 1824; and in 1834, when the population was 3,5oo, it was incorporated as a city. In 186o the population was 18,554; in 1880, 51,647; in 190o, 125,560. Franklinton was annexed in 1871, and the area was increased by successive additions of territory in every decade thereafter. The present charter (Jan. 1, 1916) provides for a mayor as executive, a legislative council of seven elected at large, a non-partisan ballot, preferential voting, the recall of elected officials and the refer endum. In the flood of 1913 about oo lives were lost in Colum bus, three bridges were destroyed, more than 4,000 dwellings were flooded and some 20,000 persons were temporarily homeless. As a protection against future floods the channel of the Scioto has been widened and revetments have been built.