The top "tool bar" is called the Control panel. And yes, you can include Columns and Span Columns in it, but it's been crowded out by default in CC 2018. A couple versions ago, they made the little icons a little bigger to make them more legible so now you have to customize the Control panel see them.
Start at the little "gear" icon on the far right end of the Control panel, just above the "hamburger menu". That opens Customize Control Panel. You may have turn off certain items in the Paragraph section. Like I turned off Paragraph Borders and Shading. It depends on your monitor resolution. You may also have to turn off something else further to the left:

When you do that, you should see the icons you're expecting at the right end for Columns, Gutter and Span Columns:
