Columbus, Georgia is a consolidated city-county located on the Chattahoochee River directly across from Phenix City, Alabama, serving as the seat of Muscogee County (officially merged in 1970, with Bibb City joining in 2000). As the second most populous city in Georgia, it had 206,922 residents in 2020, with a metro population of 328,883. Today, the city is famous for Fort Benning (the U.S. Army's Maneuver Center of Excellence), the National Infantry Museum, and the world's longest urban whitewater rafting course. Founded in 1828 and named for Christopher Columbus, it prospered as a railroad and textile hub, earning the nickname the "Lowell of the South" for its industrial mills. During the Civil War, it became a critical Confederate supply center (second only to Richmond), and it was the site of the Battle of Columbus on April 16, 1865—where John Stith Pemberton, later the inventor of Coca-Cola, was wounded.