Columbus - Ohio - History
Columbus, capital and largest city of Ohio. Columbus is located at the junction of the Scioto and Olentangy rivers, in the center of the state.
The economy of Columbus is supported largely by state, federal, and local government offices; educational and research institutions; and manufacturing industries. Major manufactures include motor-vehicle parts, aircraft, electronic and communications equipment, processed food, textiles, footwear, and printed materials. Columbus is also a major medical and cancer research center, as well as the national headquarters of several insurance companies.
In 1812 the state legislature, after searching for a central location for the Ohio capital, chose the present location of Columbus. The legislators voted to name the community in honor of Christopher Columbus, and government offices were moved here in 1816 from Chillicothe, Ohio's first state capital. Columbus was recognized as an important transportation center after the completion of a feeder canal to the Ohio Canal and Erie Canal in 1831 and the arrival of the National Road in 1833. The city was incorporated in 1834. Columbus assumed great importance as a military center during the American Civil War (1861-1865), when an arsenal and the largest prisoner-of-war camp in the North were established in the city. Columbus enjoyed large-scale economic growth after 1940, and major projects were constructed in the 1960s and 1970s. Efforts to restore the downtown areas were launched in the late 1980s.
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