Columbus lies on the Chattahoochee River directly across from Phenix City, Alabama. Adventurous tourists can even zipline over the river from Georgia to Alabama at the Blue Heron Adventure.

Columbus was 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 trade and even adopted some European-American customs. Nevertheless, most of the Creek people were forcibly removed to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) by the federal government in the 1830s during the Trail of Tears.

In 1890, one of the terms of the contract between the Water Works Company and the city of Columbus was that the city would be provided with an ornamental fountain in front of its courthouse. This, along with the city's many other fountains, led to the adoption of the nickname "Fountain City" during the 1960s.

Unaware of Lee's surrender to Grant and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, Union and Confederate forces clashed in the Battle of Columbus, Georgia, on Easter Sunday, April 16, 1865, when a Union detachment of two cavalry divisions under Maj. Gen. James H. Wilson attacked the lightly defended city. John Stith Pemberton, who later developed Coca-Cola, was wounded in this battle.

The National Infantry Museum and Soldier Center chronicles the history of the U.S. Army infantryman from the American Revolution to the present, with more than 70,000 artifacts from all eras of American history and interactive multimedia exhibits meant to honor the legacy and valor of American soldiers. Columbus is also home to the National Civil War Naval Museum at Port Columbus, a 40,000-square-foot facility that features two original Civil War military vessels, uniforms, equipment, and weapons used by the Union and Confederate navies.

The opening of the Springer Opera House in 1871 helped the city thrive after the Civil War by attracting the most famous actors of the time from all over America. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter named it the State Theatre of Georgia for the 1971-72 season, and the legislature made the designation permanent in 1992.

Everyone's heard of AFLAC, but not everyone knows that it was founded in 1955 as the American Family Life Insurance Company of Columbus. The company signed 6,426 policyholders in its first year and pioneered cancer insurance in 1958. AFLAC is still headquartered in Columbus, in MidTown, in the tallest building in the city.

After the Beastie Boys brought a giant inflatable ... ummm ... "member" onstage in 1987, the city of Columbus decided to pass an anti-lewdness law prohibiting any act that "predominantly appeals to the prurient, shameful or morbid interest of minors." Over the next few months, Bobby Brown, Gene Simmons, and LL Cool J were all arrested during concerts in Columbus, prompting other artists to cancel their shows there. Although the law is still on the books, it is no longer enforced.

A large tombstone shaped like a circus tent memorializes animals and performers killed in a horrible circus train wreck 6.5 miles east of Columbus on November 22, 1915, when the Con. T. Kennedy Carnival train ran head-on into a passenger train that shouldn't have been there. The metal cars of the passenger train withstood the impact, but the wooden cars of the circus train telescoped into the engine, caught fire, and were incinerated.

The coldest temperature ever officially recorded in Columbus was -3 °F (-19 °C) on February 13, 1899, during the Great Blizzard of 1899. Also known as the St. Valentine's Day Blizzard, the Great Blizzard of 1899 forced record cold temperatures into the southeastern United States and all the way down to Cuba.