Downtown Columbia, South Carolina

Columbia is the capital of the U.S. state of South Carolina. With a population of 136,632 at the 2020 census, it is the second-largest city in South Carolina. The city serves as the county seat of Richland County, and a portion of the city extends into neighboring Lexington County. It is the center of the Columbia metropolitan statistical area, which had a population of 829,470 in 2020 and is 7th largest urban center in the Deep South and the 72nd-largest metropolitan statistical area in the nation. The name Columbia is a poetic term used for the United States, derived from the name of Christopher Columbus, who explored for the Spanish Crown. Columbia is often abbreviated as Cola, leading to its nickname as "Soda City."The city is located about 13 miles (21 km) northwest of the geographic center of South Carolina, and is the primary city of the Midlands region of the state. It lies at the confluence of the Saluda River and the Broad River, which merge at Columbia to form the Congaree River. As the state capital, Columbia is the site of the South Carolina State House, the center of government for the state. In 1860, the South Carolina Secession Convention took place in Columbia; delegates voted for secession, making South Carolina the first state to leave the Union in the events leading up to the Civil War. Columbia is home to the University of South Carolina, the state's flagship public university and the largest in the state. The area has benefited from Congressional support for Southern military installations. Columbia is the site of Fort Jackson, the largest United States Army installation for Basic Combat Training. Twenty miles to the east of the city is McEntire Joint National Guard Base, which is operated by the U.S. Air Force and is used as a training base for the 169th Fighter Wing of the South Carolina Air National Guard.

The capture of Columbia occurred February 17–18, 1865, during the Carolinas Campaign of the American Civil War. The state capital of Columbia, South Carolina, was captured by Union forces under Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman. Much of the city was burned, although it is not clear which side caused the fires.

WARQ (93.5 FM) is a radio station licensed to Columbia, South Carolina and serves the Columbia market. The Alpha Media outlet is licensed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to broadcast with an effective radiated power (ERP) of 2.8 kW. Its studios are on Pineview Road in Columbia, while the transmitter tower is located atop the Capitol Center building at 1201 Main Street. The station currently airs a Top 40/CHR format branded as "Live 93.5". WARQ broadcasts in the HD Radio (hybrid) format.

WUDE (94.3 MHz) is a commercial FM radio station licensed to Forest Acres, South Carolina, and serving the Columbia metropolitan area. Owned by Midlands Media Group LLC, the station broadcasts a country music radio format branded as 94.3 The Dude. It concentrates on country hits from the 1980s till today. The radio studios and transmitter are on Gervais Street in Columbia, near the state capitol building. WUDE broadcasts from atop the South Trust Tower. WUDE is a Class A FM station with an effective radiated power (ERP) of 2,550 watts. By contrast, country music rival 97.5 WCOS-FM is powered at 100,000 watts.

Capitol Center is an office skyscraper in Columbia, South Carolina. At 106.4 m (349 ft), it is the tallest building in South Carolina. The tower has about 1,000 people inside working every week and about 400 offices. A 26-story skyscraper, it was the tallest structure in South Carolina from its completion in December 1987 to the completion of the Prysmian Copper Wire Tower in Abbeville in 2009. The tower was built on the site of the former Wade Hampton Hotel which was imploded in July 1985. This modern building exterior is finished in double-paned tinted glass with horizontal bands of anodized aluminum color panels. The 25-story tower was completed in 1987 during a Columbia high-rise building boom, as the AT&T Building. Naming rights have been previously held by Affinity and South Trust Bank. The current signage on the building is held by Truist Bank. During its construction in 1986, gubernatorial candidate Carroll Campbell successfully used the then unfinished structure, whose construction was partially financed by the State of South Carolina, as a symbol for excessive government spending. Capitol Center contains 460,020 sq ft (42,737 m2) of office space, at over 90% occupancy, the building leases to some state government agencies, several top law firms in the state, and other businesses. Attached to the tower is a 7-story parking garage containing over 1,000 spaces. The 25th floor is home to The Capital City Club.

The Tower at Main and Gervais is a high-rise office building in Columbia, South Carolina. Built in 2009, the tower has light blue glazing and is adorned with columns, giving the building a modern, stylized look. There is also an outdoor dining plaza at the base of the building between its ground and Gervais Street, looking towards the South Carolina State House.The building's main use is for commercial purposes. However, the building also houses a restaurant, service branches and a parking garage. The tower is the third skyscraper to open on Columbia's Main Street in five years, a development that has reshaped downtown Columbia.Main and Gervais is currently the most recent fully completed office building in Columbia and South Carolina.

The South Carolina State House is the building housing the government of the U.S. state of South Carolina, which includes the South Carolina General Assembly and the offices of the Governor and Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina. Located in the capital city of Columbia near the corner of Gervais and Assembly Streets, the building also housed the Supreme Court until 1971.The State House is in the Classical Revival style; it is approximately 180 feet (55 m) tall, 300 feet (91 m) long, 100 feet (30 m) wide. It weighs more than 70,000 short tons (64,000 t) and has 130,673 square feet (12,140 m2) of space.

The South Carolina State Armory, built in 1905, is an historic National Guard building located at 1219 Assembly Street near the State House in Columbia, South Carolina.

The Union National Bank Building is an historic building located in downtown Columbia, South Carolina, United States. The ten story Late Gothic Revival and Sullivanesque structure was completed in 1913. It was designed by Atlanta architect William Augustus Edwards. Its decorative terra cotta details on the Gervais and Main Street facades were covered sometime in the 1960s and another renovation in the 1990s. Its significance is based on its association with business and state government. Building an office building instead of a stand-alone bank represents the strength of the city's economy in the early 20th-century. Its location across the street from the South Carolina State House allowed the bank to lease office space to the state who struggled to provide adequate office space themselves. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 14, 2019.

The South Carolina House of Representatives is the lower house of the South Carolina General Assembly. It consists of 124 representatives elected to two-year terms at the same time as U.S. congressional elections. Unlike many legislatures, seating on the floor is not divided by party, but is arranged by county delegation – a legacy of the original apportionment of the chamber. Until 1964, each of South Carolina's counties was a legislative district, with the number of representatives determined by the county's population. It meets from the second week of January into May.

Building at 1210–1214 Main Street, also known as Capitol Café, is a historic commercial building located at Columbia, South Carolina. It was built by 1871, and is a two-story, seven bay, stuccoed brick building. A cast-iron railing extends across central three bays of the second floor. The Capitol Café was previously located in the building since 1913.It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

Columbia Central Fire Station, also known as Columbia Fire Department Headquarters and Senate Street Station, is a historic fire station located at Columbia, South Carolina. It was built between 1949 and 1951, and consists of two buildings and a structure. The main building is a two-story, rectangular, brick building in the Moderne / International Style. It has a flat roof and features horizontal bands of windows. The one-story, brick fire truck garage building and the main building were constructed in 1949–1950. The drill tower is a six-story reinforced concrete structure built in 1951. The complex served as the Columbia Fire Department's Headquarters from 1950 until 1995.It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.