COLUMBUS: Georgia's UGLY Step-Sister City? What I Actually Saw

I am in Columbus Georgia to had a Chattahoochee River runs through Columbus interesting fact about this River and the town is the Georgia legislature in 1828 founded this town specifically on this River because it was at this point on the River where it became navigable am I saying that word right navigable navigable anyway at this point you could take the river by boat all the way to New Orleans and international destinations Beyond so the state set up the city planned this city specifically for that I've moved in a little bit closer to these Rapids as I continue to tell you about Columbus now after the city was founded in 1928 it became even more important during the Civil War Columbus ranked second after Richmond Virginia in the manufacture of supplies for the Confederate Army and by the way the last land battle of the Civil War happened right here in Columbus and a little side note about that John Stith pinderton was injured in that battle this is the guy who created Coca-Cola in the battle he was injured by a saber and as a result had chronic pain that would not go away and in his efforts to do something about that pain he kept formulating different tonics one of those tonics became Coca-Cola [Music] so he created the recipe for Coca-Cola right here in Columbus and afterwards he took it to Atlanta where it was marketed there and of course Coca-Cola remains in Atlanta to this day but not everyone knows that Coca-Cola the actual recipe was made right here in Columbus Georgia I'm walking along this Riverwalk they have here absolutely beautiful it goes for miles and miles I think I read 15 miles so it goes way back in that direction really awesome I'm showing you these Rapids you know what why don't I get a little bit closer to them and then I'll tell you about them it really is beautiful I am impressed I'm going to make my way over to these Rapids that are over here more about them as I tell you some more about the city now in the 1900s as they progressed businesses and people moved out of the Cities downtown and uh by what I guess this 60s 70s the downtown was blighted decrepit dangerous uh up into the 80s now in uh I guess the early 2000s the city decided to fix that so they began a revitalization effort as a result of the revitalization efforts downtown was massively improved but museums Stadium Parks lots of things were built including this area here this is the world's longest white water rafting course and it has become one of the top attractions in the city swing around here give you a little bit of a look the weather can't decide if it's going to be good or not when I first got on the Riverwalk which by the way is one of the other things that the revitalization brought it sure is beautiful isn't it yeah when I first stepped out on the Riverwalk it was we had some sun but uh it has since disappeared a little bit windy you can probably hear some wind Shearer weather's still nice though it's about uh 70 to 73 degrees it's Thursday January 12th it's about 10 A.M real nice weather you're looking at Katie the cow one of the landmarks of the town a symbol of the bovine industry here in Georgia he's 20 feet tall she used to be out on the edge of the city but they moved here moved her here right into downtown Columbus which is uh really just right over here and uh I thought I was going to have to go out and find her but here she is right here on the banks of the river pretty fantastic Katie the cow there she is well has the city's revitalization efforts paid off well let's see I am in downtown now I'm going to get out on foot take a look around and as I do tell you some more about the city give you the hard numbers I'm going to do that right now looking beautiful already though I'm out on foot on Broadway Street seems to be the main Street of downtown to see for yourself wow it's absolutely beautiful we'll walk around downtown a little bit I'll show you some more but really gorgeous here I'll be it very noisy a lot of work going on you can see the sun's peaked out a little Bill's downright summer-like despite being the middle of January I'm out here on the street because I saw a fountain here the town is nicknamed Fountain City because of the many fountains throughout the town really nice huh this is absolutely beautiful it's hard to picture this as ever being decrepit and blighted isn't it every building every storefront has a business virtually all of them mom and pop businesses unique businesses there's the source of all that noise in fact he's winding down a little bit anyway lots of restaurants and pubs it is absolutely gorgeous who knew Columbus Georgia look like this not me I'm gonna look around some more I'm continuing to make my way down Broadway a little bit quieter over here a lot of people walking around though this is not a dead downtown but um you know Columbus fellow Georgia city of Savannah is often cited as the most or second most beautiful city in the United States Savannah Charleston South Carolina a lot of the travel polls have them one two most beautiful towns in the U.S but I'm telling you now Columbus Rivals both those towns really impressive how nice this town is at least the downtown anyway how about some statistics 2021 estimates population of Columbus 206 900 people so it's a pretty good sized town metro area is 328 900. in terms of city population Columbus is the second biggest in Georgia uh Metro population though it is fourth Atlanta is first of course August II Savannah third Columbus brings up or is in fourth place Metro per capita income 28 500. median household income is fifty thousand five hundred uh the U.S median as a whole the country is 78 000. so it's definitely a lower income lower incomes here but I was reading that the cost of living in this town is is close to 30 percent lower than the rest of the country and uh that bears that out as far as home values median home value here is 171 171 600. of course the U.S median is 428 000. it's giving you some sights here uh now when I was down at the river earlier in the video that is directly right there I mean a couple minutes walking away so right there anyway poverty level is 19.5 percent which is a tad High U.S average 11.6 and the age here is the median age here is 36 years old so here let me uh come up and give you a nice look at this this is a noisy town anyway yeah I'm gonna look around a little bit more uh I was looking at the top employers Fort Benning military base is right here in town or near town by far the largest employer 39 000 people the rest of the top ten is mostly city government Education Health Care but uh let's see Columbia State University is number nine and Pratt and Whitney is number 10. now Pratt and Whitney is one of the three top aircraft engine manufacturers in the world that's a cool building but it looks like it's boarded up I hate seeing that right there well if there's one thing you're going to see in the Deep South it's impressive churches this is the First Presbyterian Church it's right here in downtown Columbus to Tower the clock it's gorgeous built in 1862. if my information is correct let me come out here and give you a little bit better look at the front of it this is a gorgeous building religious or not you gotta admire some of the architecture of these buildings it's beautiful look at this beautiful building here says it was built in 1889 look at all that stone work at the top man I love stuff like that the original very best donuts since 1954 seems to be a landmark of sorts and I'm in the mood for donuts I'm gonna get me some nerves looks delicious don't they I'm getting some Fruity Pebbles Donuts another shot of the beautiful downtown but um I was going to say I saw a Irish Pub and here it is right here I think we're gonna have myself a well-deserved get a stout if it's Irish they gotta have Guinness am I right I think I'm right cool I even got a Guinness glass pretty nice looking place quiet for [Music] 12 noon on a Thursday I'm thinking but uh [Music] if I was to guess a lot of the status still has a hangover from Georgia winning a national title [Music] really nice [Music] five bucks for a pint of Guinness that's going to cost 12 bucks in Dallas so yeah she's getting 100 tip there's the donut shop I was just at it started raining so I had to jump in the car and anyway check out these uh Fruity Pebbles coated Donuts I got they look good don't they they will be dessert tonight the rain has started to fall here in Columbus Georgia but it's not going to stop me from showing you this this is the Church of the Holy Family built in 1880 it is on the national register wow how beautiful is this I'm gonna walk around here a bit and give you a look got a placard here Church of the Holy Family perish relocated to the site when a new church was dedicated May 12 1880. name changed to the Church of the Holy Family so a church was built on property given by The Sisters of Mercy interesting only downtown church with a grave located on its grounds so there you go uh here let me give you another look it is a pretty spectacular looking we can go inside take a quick look what do you think should I give it a whirl why not let's see if the doors are locked Grand doors well this one's not locked so far so good foreign yeah you can see in there services are being conducted so I'm not gonna go in and bother them anyway God just smells old in here the Beautiful uh glass a little pink about just a little Peak beautiful Church all right well I'm not going to bother these people so I'm leaving I walked outside the church and this is this a home that's been converted I don't know it's across the street it says oh oh this town is so noisy uh anyway it says it's uh trees Columbus Coalition for sound growth Nature Conservancy ah it's a beautiful building look at this you can tell it's really old hmm I don't know if I'm allowed to walk in there I don't want to trespass but what a wow what a building looks like I could use a bit of a touch up on the paint but it is impressive to look at I'm on the edge of downtown here uh you see the homes wow really beautiful this is part of a historic district I think and these homes are astonishing gorgeous look at this weather though it's getting ugly anyway uh yeah look at this one wow love that woodwork oh yeah that is that is beautiful let me slow down a little how about that unbelievable it's coming down well let's see I'm driving a few blocks out of downtown oh wow all this trash I hate to see that such a beautiful town anyway I'm dead just kinda heading into some neighborhoods attempting to still kind of in the city though look at that the Sun sun is trying to come out I'm just kind of roaming around the town and I mean wow look at this look at this house right here holy cow that's just somebody's house that is that is a mansion huh I'm like maybe a mile or two out of downtown wow incredible I'm a couple miles out of downtown and then I just come upon this building here Aflac building this would be the tallest building in downtown if that's where it was but it's not it's out here kind of out of well a couple miles out of downtown a few blocks anyway that's uh yeah I find that interesting Bethlehem Lutheran Church just taking a quick look at it because it's a very interesting architecture kind of 70-ish isn't it yeah I really like that that's cool I think I saw some shotgun houses here but before I got to him you can see that uh phone booth there Sun might be in the way but yeah I got a couple of shotgun houses very old I always love seeing shotgun houses though to me they're really interesting yeah there's another one there an actual shotgun house up on bricks that's pretty cool not always easy to find those and right up the street I guess that's a church no it says it's for sale it's got a cross on it huh maybe it used to be a church interesting anyway I'm still just looking around I think I saw some more shotgun houses up here when I've get a video of those real quick yeah I got a couple more here an old shotgun house there it's empty there's something in its day though let's love them man I don't know why got several here uh this one is occupied looks like got a dog protecting it pretty cool look at this impressive looking structure looks to me like a government building but it's not it's a church the First Baptist Church and from what I understand it was built in 1859 impressive looking structure but it doesn't look like a church to me am I wrong like this building down here that looks like a church but this doesn't it's still beautiful though anyway uh that's going to be the end of this video uh normally I pick up the wife now but um you know and then we do some stuff but she's not feeling well so going to give her the day off but she'll be in the next city video uh Augusta Augusta Georgia meanwhile uh the next video coming up will be me touring some small towns here in Georgia so uh see you then

Channel: Joe & Nic's Road Trip

Views: 208,391

Keywords:

Id: plspj_l-pFE

Length: 23min 5sec (1385 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 17 2023