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Augusta, Georgia is the county seat of Richmond County located on the central eastern border of Georgia across the Savannah River from North Carolina, and with a 2024 population of 201,737, it ranks as Georgia's third most populous city and the 124th largest in the United States. Founded in 1736 by James Oglethorpe and named after Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, the mother of King George III, Augusta served as Georgia's second state capital from 1785 to 1795 and was where Georgia ratified the U.S. Constitution on January 2, 1788. The city housed the principal Confederate Powderworks during the American Civil War and became a major resort destination in the early-to-mid 20th century due to its warm climate. Augusta is internationally renowned for hosting the Masters golf tournament each spring at Augusta National Golf Club, which attracts over 200,000 visitors annually, and is home to Fort Gordon, a major U.S. Army base that will host the new National Cyber Security Headquarters established in 2016. The Augusta metropolitan area had a 2020 population of 611,000, making it Georgia's second-largest metro area and the ninth most populous in the Deep South, located approximately two hours from downtown Atlanta via I-20. Columbus, Georgia is a consolidated city-county located on the Chattahoochee River on Georgia's west-central border, directly across from Phenix City, Alabama, serving as the county seat of Muscogee County since their official merger in 1970. As Georgia's second most populous city after Atlanta, Columbus had a population of 206,922 at the 2020 census, with its metropolitan statistical area reaching 328,883 residents and part of a larger combined statistical area of 563,967. Founded in 1828 at the beginning of the navigable Chattahoochee River, the city became one of the South's most important industrial centers by 1860, earning the nickname "Lowell of the South" for its textile mills and earning its greatest prominence during the Civil War as the Confederacy's second-largest manufacturing center after Richmond, Virginia. Today, Columbus is home to Fort Benning (the U.S. Army's Maneuver Center of Excellence), the National Infantry Museum, and the world's longest urban whitewater rafting course on the Chattahoochee River, located 100 miles southwest of Atlanta. Athens, Georgia is a consolidated city-county located approximately 70 miles northeast of Atlanta and is home to the University of Georgia, the state's flagship public R1 research institution founded in 1785 as the nation's first state-supported university. With a 2021 population of 128,711, Athens-Clarke County ranks as Georgia's sixth-most populous city and anchors a metropolitan area of 215,415 residents. The city is internationally recognized as a center of alternative music and indie culture, having launched major acts including R.E.M., the B-52's, Widespread Panic, and of Montreal, earning recognition as one of America's best college towns. Originally a trading settlement called Cedar Shoals on the Oconee River, Athens was established as a university town in 1801 when trustee John Milledge donated 633 acres and named the area after Classical Athens, with the first permanent structure, Franklin College, completed in 1806. The city became known as the "Manchester of the South" during the 19th century due to its cotton mills and transportation developments, including the Georgia Railroad completed to Atlanta by 1845.