COLUMBIA, a borough of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., on the W. bank of the Susquehanna river (here crossed by a long steel bridge), opposite Wrightsville and about 81 m. W. by N. of Philadelphia. Pop. (1890) 10,599; (1900) 12,316, of whom 772 were foreign-born; (1910) 11,454. It is served by the Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia, Baltimore & Washington, the Philadelphia & Reading, and the Northern Central railways, and by interurban electric railways. The river here is about a mile wide, and a considerable portion of the borough is built on the slope of a hill which rises gently from the river-bank and overlooks beautiful scenery. The Pennsylvania railway has repair shops here, and among Columbia’s manufactures are silk goods, embroidery and laces, iron and steel pipe, engines, laundry machinery, brushes, stoves, iron toys, umbrellas, flour, lumber and wagons; the city is also a busy shipping and trading centre. Columbia was first settled, by Quakers, in 1726; it was laid out as a town in 1787; and in 1814 it was incorporated. In 1790 it was one of several places considered in Congress for a permanent site of the national capital.
COLUMBIA, the capital city of South Carolina, U.S.A., and the county-seat of Richland county, on the E. bank of the Congaree river, a short distance below the confluence of the Saluda and the Broad rivers, about 130 m. N.W. of Charleston. Pop. (1890) 15,353; (19O0) 21,108, of whom 9858 were negroes; and (1910) 26,319. It is served by the Atlantic Coast Line, the Southern, the Seaboard Air Line, and the Columbia, Newberry & Laurens railways. Columbia is picturesquely situated on the level top of a bluff overlooking the Congaree, which falls about 36 ft. in passing by, but is navigable for the remainder of its course. The surrounding country is devoted chiefly to cotton culture. The state house, United States government building and city hall are fine structures. Some of the new business houses are ten or more storeys in height. The state penitentiary and the state insane asylum are located here, and Columbia is an important educational centre, being the seat of the university of South Carolina, the Columbia College for women (Methodist Episcopal South, 1854), the College for women (Presbyterian, 1890), and the Presbyterian Theological Seminary (1828); and the Allen University (African Methodist Episcopal; coeducational, 1880), and the Benedict College (Baptist) for negroes. The University of South Carolina, organized in 1801 and opened in 1805, was known as South Carolina College in 1805-1863, 1878-1887 and 1891-1906, and as the university of South Carolina in 1866-1877, 1888-1891 and after 1906; in 1907-1908 it had departments of arts, science, pedagogy and law, an enrolment of 285 students, and a faculty of 25 instructors. By means of a canal abundant water power is furnished by the Congaree, and the city has some of the largest cotton mills in the world; it has, besides, foundries and machine shops and manufactories of fertilizers and hosiery. The manufactures under the factory system were valued at $3,133,903 in 1900 and at $4,676,944 in 1905—a gain, greater than that of any other city in the state, of 49.2% in five years. In the neighbourhood are several valuable granite quarries. The municipality owns and operates its water-works.
While much of the site was still a forest the legislature, in 1786, chose it for the new capital. It was laid out in the same year, and in 1790 the legislature first met here. Until 1805, when it was incorporated as a village, Columbia was under the direct government of the legislature; in 1854 it was chartered as a city. On the morning of the 17th of February 1865 General W. T. Sherman, on his march through the Carolinas, entered Columbia, and on the ensuing night a fire broke out which was not extinguished until most of the city was destroyed. The responsibility for this fire was charged by the Confederates upon the Federals and by the Federals upon the Confederates.
COLUMBIA, a city and the county-seat of Maury county, Tennessee, U.S.A., situated on the Duck river, in the central part of the state, 46 m. S. of Nashville. Pop. (1890) 5370; (1900) 6052 (2716 negroes); (1910) 5754. Columbia is served by the Louisville & Nashville, and the Nashville, Chattanooga & St Louis railways. It is the seat of the Columbia Institute for girls (under Protestant Episcopal control), founded in 1836, and of the Columbia Military Academy. Columbia is in a fine farming region; is engaged extensively in the mining and shipping of phosphates; has an important trade in live-stock, especially mules; manufactures cotton, lumber, flour, bricks, pumps and woollen goods; and has marble and stone works. Columbia was settled about 1807 and was incorporated in 1822. During the Civil War it was the base from which General N. B. Forrest operated in 1862-1863, and was alternately occupied by Confederate and Federal forces during General Hood’s Nashville campaign (November-December 1864).
COLUMBIA RIVER, a stream of the north-west United States and south-west Canada, about 939 m. in length, draining a basin of about 250,000 sq. m., of which 38,395 are in British Columbia; some 105,000 sq. m. belong to the valley of the Snake and 11,700 to that of the Willamette. The source of the river is partly in the Yellowstone country, partly near the Titon peaks, and partly in the pine-clad mountains of British Columbia. Some American geographers regard the head as that of the Clark Fork, but it is most generally taken to be in British Columbia about 80 m. north of the United States line. From this point it runs some 150 m. to the north-west to the “Big Bend,” and then in a great curve southward, enclosing the superb ranges of the Selkirks, crossing the international line near the boundary of Washington and Idaho, where it is joined by the Pend Oreille river, or Clark Fork, already referred to. This latter river rises in the Rocky Mountains west of Helena, Montana, falls with a heavy slope (1323 ft. in 167 m.) to its confluence with the Flathead, flows through Lake Pend Oreille (27 m.) in northern Idaho, and runs in deep canyons (falling 900 ft. in 200 m.) to its junction with the Columbia, which from this point continues almost due south for more than 106 m. Here the Columbia is joined by the Spokane, a large river with heavy fall, and enters the “Great Plain of the Columbia,” an area of some 22,000 sq. m., resembling the “parks” of Colorado, shut in on all sides by mountains: the Moses range to the north, the Bitter Root and Cœur d’Alène on the east, the Blue on the south, and the Cascades on the west. The soil is rich, yielding great harvests of grain, and the mountains rich in minerals as yet only slightly prospected. After breaking into this basin the river turns sharply to the west and skirts the northern mountain barrier for about 105 m. Where it strikes the confines of the Cascades, it is joined by the Okanogan, turns due south in the second Big Bend, and flows about 200 m. to its junction with the Snake near Wallula.
After the confluence of the Snake with the Columbia the greater river turns west toward the Pacific. Throughout its course to this point it may be said that the Columbia has no flood plain; everywhere it is cutting its bed; almost everywhere it is characterized by canyons, although above the Spokane the valley is much broken down and there is considerable timbered and fertile bench land. Below the Spokane the canyon becomes more steep and rugged. From the mouth of the Okanogan to Priests Rapids extends a superb canyon, with precipitous walls of black columnar basalt 1000 to 3000 ft. in height. The finest portion is below the Rock Island Rapids. In this part of its course, along the Cascade range in the Great Plain and at its passage of the range westward, rapids and cascades particularly obstruct the imperfectly opened bed. In the lower Columbia, navigation is first interrupted 160 m. from the mouth at the Cascades, a narrow gorge across the Cascade range 4.5 m. long, where the river falls 24 ft. in 2500; the rapids are evaded by a canal constructed (1878-1896) by the Federal government, and by a portage railway (1890-1891). Fifty-three miles above this are the Dalles, a series of falls, rapids and rock obstructions extending some 12 m. and ending at Celilo, 115m. below Wallula, with a fall of 20 ft. There are also impediments just below the mouth of the Snake; others in the lower course of this river below Riparia; and almost continuous obstructions in the Columbia above Priests Rapids. The commerce of the Columbia is very important, especially that from Portland, Vancouver, Astoria, and other outlets of the Willamette valley and the lower Columbia. The grain region of the Great Plain, the bottom-land orchards and grain field on the plateaus of the Snake, have not since 1880 been dependent upon the water navigation for freighting, but in their interest costly attempts have been made to open the river below the Snake uninterruptedly to commerce.