Columbus is a city on the western edge of Georgia, set on the Chattahoochee River directly across from Phenix City, Alabama. Since 1971, the city and Muscogee County have operated under a consolidated government—the first such city-county consolidation in Georgia—and the combined population is about 204,000. Columbus is one of the state's largest cities and the economic and cultural center of the Chattahoochee Valley. The city was founded in 1828 by an act of the Georgia Legislature at the head of navigation on the Chattahoochee, near Coweta Falls. Cotton and the river's waterpower drove its growth for more than a century, and textile mills long anchored the local economy. That industrial base has since diversified. Today Columbus is home to Fort Moore, the large U.S. Army installation formerly known as Fort Benning, which sits on the city's southern edge and shapes much of the region's character. Major corporate employers include Aflac, Synovus, Global Payments, and J.M. Smucker, while Columbus State University and Columbus Technical College anchor higher education and workforce training. The city's riverfront has been transformed into one of its defining features. River restoration created the longest urban whitewater rafting course in the world, complemented by the Chattahoochee RiverWalk and a lively Uptown district of shops, restaurants, and events. The National Infantry Museum and Soldier Center celebrates the Army's infantry heritage. Columbus's neighborhoods range from the historic homes of Midtown and Garrard Woods to the riverfront Mill District and older in-town streets of East Highland and Dinglewood. The combination of military, university, corporate, and manufacturing employment gives the city a broad economic base and a steady flow of relocating households. Interstate 185 connects Columbus to the Atlanta region to the northeast.