Columbia

River in western North America; length over 2,005 km/1,245 mi. It rises in Columbia Lake on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains in British Columbia, Canada, 130 km/81 mi north of the USA border. It flows through Washington State along the northern border of Oregon, until it reaches the Pacific below Astoria; its estuary is about 55 km/34 mi long and from 5–11 km/3–7 mi wide, and its mouth is the only deep-water harbour between San Francisco and Cape Flattery.

The Columbia River was harnessed for irrigation and power by the Grand Coulee and other major dams, as part of the Columbia Basin Project. The river with its tributaries possesses one-third of the entire hydroelectricity potential of the USA. Although it was once famous for its salmon fishing, the catch here is now much reduced as a result of pollution and dam construction; it was listed in 1994 as being in danger of ecological collapse, along with its main tributary, the Snake River. It was listed as an endangered river for most of the 1990s, and salmon stocks were estimated to be under one tenth of their usual size, despite hatchery programmes.

The mouth of the Columbia River was reached by Robert Gray in 1792; the explorer David Thompson followed it from its source to its mouth in 1811. The Columbia and its tributaries drain a huge basin of approximately 668,215 sq km/258,000 sq mi, including most of Idaho, Washington, and Oregon, and parts of Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, and Utah. Since 1964 its flow has been the subject of a treaty between the USA and Canada, the two countries combining to promote a development programme of flood control, water storage, and hydroelectricity generation.

Columbia

Capital of South Carolina, on the Congaree River; seat of Richland County; population (2000 est) 116,300. Columbia is the centre of an agricultural region; industries include the manufacture of textiles, plastics, electrical goods, fertilizers, items for the nuclear power industry, and hosiery. It was incorporated in 1805 and was made a city in 1854.

History Columbia was only the second planned city in the USA when it was laid out in 1786. The city was burned by Union troops (under the command of General Sherman) in 1865, near the end of the Civil War. Fort Jackson (1917), the largest basic army training centre in the USA, is nearby.

Features Columbia's historic townscape is commemorated by 101 entries on the national register of historic places. Attractions include the South Carolina State Museum, which is housed in a former electic textile plant dating from 1893, and the Columbia Museum of Art (1950), Riverbanks Zoo (1974), the Three Rivers Music Festival, and the South Carolina Philharmonic. Columbia is the seat of several colleges including the University of South Carolina at Columbia (1801), Allen University (1870), Benedict College (1870), and Columbia College (1923). Columbia was the childhood home of the 28th president, Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924). The long-serving South Carolina senator Strom Thurmond (1902–2003) lived in the city.

Columbia

City and administrative headquarters of Boone County, central Missouri, USA, 38 km/24 mi northeast of Jefferson City; population (2000) 84,500. It is mainly an educational and medical research centre; also vital to the city's economy are the insurance industry, medical institutions, agricultural products, and coal. It is the home of Stephens College for women (1833), the University of Missouri (1839), the first university west of the Mississippi River, and Columbia College (1851).

The city was laid out in 1821 and incorporated in 1826.

Columbia

Command module of the Apollo 11 spacecraft that took three US astronauts to the Moon in 1969. Columbia was piloted by astronaut Michael Collins, who remained in lunar orbit while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descended to the surface in the lunar module, known as Eagle.

Columbia

Space shuttle Columbia takes off from Kennedy Space Center in 1993. Mission STS-58 was designed to study the performance of the human body in space. Columbia, the longest-serving of NASA's five space shuttles, is named after the sloop used by Robert Gray to explore the coast of British Columbia in 1792.

John Young (left), commander, and Robert Crippen, pilot; the crew of STS-1 in the cabin of space shuttle Columbia. They are logging time in the orbiter at Kennedy Space Center, before Columbia's first Earth-orbiting test flight in 1981.

First of the US space shuttles. It made its first flight on 12 April 1981, piloted by US astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen. In 1996 it achieved the longest shuttle flight ever, of almost 17 days. It was destroyed in February 2003 when it broke up on re-entry, killing all seven astronauts on board.

Columbia

Town in central Tennessee, about 72 km/45 mi south of Nashville, seat of Maury County; population (2000) 33,100. Maury County was settled from 1805 after a treaty with the Cherokee. Locals wanted its chief town of Columbia to be the state capital, given its central position. In 1808 it was laid out as the seat of Maury County. The area was known originally for agriculture; it later became a centre for the mining of phosphate. In the 1890s dozens of phosphate companies set up in Columbia and Mount Pleasant. By the 1980s, however, almost all firms had closed. Maury County is home to General Motors's innovative Saturn car plant, which has attracted many people to the area.

The first courthouse was in operation from 1810 to 1844, the second from 1845–1903, and the present courthouse dates from 1906. Columbia was a strategic location in the Civil War and was occupied alternately by Union and Confederate forces. Local people fought for the Confederacy although few slaves were held in the area. The Union soldiers did not damage Columbia severely because of their regard for James K. Polk, 11th President of the United States, who had lived in the town. Thus many pre-war houses survived and are counted among Columbia's 35 entries on the national register of historic places. Other important historical sites include the Zion Presbyterian Church of 1807 outside Columbia and Greenwood Cemetery where the graves of President Polk's parents and soldiers from the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, and the Civil War can be found.

President James Polk lived for a few years in Columbia at his parents' home from 1816 when not away at university. This structure, built in 1816, is the only surviving house Polk inhabited (the White House excepted). Its garden contains a cast iron fountain from his last house in Nashville, which was demolished in 1900. Now the James K. Polk House, it is on the national register of historic places.