Columbus, Ohio

Where Columbus is

Columbus is the seat of Franklin County, at 39.96°N, 83.00°W, near the geographic center of Ohio. The Scioto River flows south through downtown, and the Olentangy joins it from the north just west of the Ohio State University campus. The land is level glacial plain about 780 ft above sea level. Interstates 70 and 71 cross in the city, and the I-270 outer belt rings it. Columbus is on Eastern Time.

How it became the capital

Ohio became a state in 1803 with its capital at Chillicothe, on the Scioto 45 miles south. The legislature moved to Zanesville in 1810 and back to Chillicothe in 1812, and that year accepted an offer from a group of landowners to build a capital on the high east bank of the Scioto opposite the village of Franklinton. The new town was named for Christopher Columbus. The legislature first met there in December 1816. The choice was made for its central position, and the National Road, which reached the city in 1833, and the Ohio and Erie Canal feeder then made it a transport hub.

Population

Columbus had 905,748 residents in 2020, the largest city in Ohio and the 14th-largest in the country. It overtook Cleveland in the 1990 census and has grown every decade since, partly by annexing land around it. Cleveland had 372,624 in 2020 and Cincinnati about 309,000. The Columbus metropolitan area has about 2.1 million people, second in Ohio to Cincinnati's when that metro's Kentucky suburbs are included.

The capitol

The Ohio Statehouse on Capitol Square was built between 1839 and 1861. Seven architects worked on it, including Henry Walter, whose original design won a competition, and the supervising architect Nathan B. Kelley; Alexander Jackson Davis and Ithiel Town also contributed. It is a Greek Revival building of Columbus limestone with a low cylindrical cupola rather than a dome, which was a deliberate choice. Abraham Lincoln spoke at the Statehouse in 1859 and 1861, and his body lay in state in the rotunda in 1865.

Distances to other cities

Indianapolis is about 175 miles west on Interstate 70. The Ohio River is about 100 miles south at Portsmouth.

Related maps

• Ohio map — the whole state with borders, cities and counties.
• Columbus city map — the city page with nearby cities and distances.
• Ohio county map · blank Ohio map · printable Ohio map.
• All 50 state capitals on one map, and the state capitals quiz.
• Midwest region · East North Central division · Eastern Time Zone.