Columbia University's Low Library

Nearly 30,000 students attend Columbia University, located in Morningside Heights in New York City. But how many know the many secrets of the school? Here are 15 fun facts about the institution:

1. Columbia is Built Atop a Former Mental Asylum

Bloomingdale Mental Asylum-Columbia University-King's College-Manhattan-Morningside Heights-NYC
Image from Wikimedia Commons

The current location of Columbia University was built on the former Bloomingdale Asylum, a public hospital petitioned for by the doctors at King’s College (formerly Columbia University pre-Revolutionary War). The 26-acre bucolic institution extended over to where the Cathedral of St. John the Divine is today. Columbia University moved to this location in 1897, with a campus designed by McKim, Mead and White.