Columbia | South Carolina Public Radio

"C" is for Columbia (Richland County; 2010 population 130,493). Named for Christopher Columbus and created in 1786 as the nation’s first truly planned capital city, Columbia has a unique history. While now the setting for state, county, and municipal governments, it took shape in the wilderness near the geographic center of South Carolina. The original plan for the city was a grid two miles square containing 400 blocks. Most exceptional were the wide streets. In 1950, Columbia embraced the city-manager government. The city has always been a multifaceted community that defies easy classification: home to a college, but not a college town; built cotton mills and acquired huge military base, became neither a mill town nor a “soldier” town. The inability to be pigeonholed may be Columbia’s greatest asset, as its diversity has made it “Everyone’s City.”