Columbus is a consolidated city-county located on the west-central border of the U. It is the county seat of Muscogee County , with which it officially merged in ; the original merger excluded Bibb City , which joined in after dissolving its own city charter.
Columbus is the second most populous city in Georgia after Atlanta , and fields the state's fourth-largest metropolitan area. At the U. Columbus lies miles km southwest of Atlanta. Fort Benning , the United States Army 's Maneuver Center of Excellence and a major employer, is located south of the city in southern Muscogee and Chattahoochee counties.
Columbus is home to museums and tourism sites, including the National Infantry Museum , dedicated to the U. Army's Infantry Branch. It has the longest urban whitewater rafting course in the world constructed on the Chattahoochee River. This was for centuries the traditional territory of the Creek Indians , who became known as one of the Five Civilized Tribes of the Southeast after European contact. Those who lived closest to white-occupied areas conducted considerable trading and adopted some European American ways.
Founded in by an act of the Georgia Legislature , Columbus was situated at the beginning of the navigable portion of the Chattahoochee River and on the last stretch of the Federal Road before entering Alabama. The city was named for Christopher Columbus. The plan for the city was drawn up by Dr. Edwin L. DeGraffenried, who placed the town on a bluff overlooking the river. Edward Lloyd Thomas surveyor was selected to lay out the town on 1, acres.
Across the river to the west, where Phenix City, Alabama, is now located, lived several tribes of the Creek and other Georgia and Alabama indigenous peoples. Most Creeks moved west with the Treaty of Washington. Those who stayed and made war were forcibly removed in The river served as Columbus's connection to the world, particularly enabling it to ship its commodity cotton crops from the plantations to the international cotton market via New Orleans and ultimately Liverpool , England.
