Happy Birthday, Washington City!
In 1790, Congress authorized President George Washington to find a site along the Potomac River for a capitol city, and he picked a spot just up the river from his home at Mount Vernon. This was the first time a country had ever established a permanent capitol by legislative action. An area of one hundred square miles, straddling the Potomac, was mapped out by surveyors and the land was not to belong to any particular state. This territory was named “District of Columbia” in honor of Christopher Columbus. French engineer Pierre L’Enfant was hired by Washington to design the city, and in 1791, the District’s commissioners decided to name the city Washington.
On May 3, 1802, Washington was incorporated as a city, and people immediately began to refer to the city as Washington, D.C., as if the D.C. were a state abbreviation. Throughout Washington’s presidency, the First Family (George and Martha Washington, plus two of their grandchildren) lived in a borrowed house in Philadelphia, so a key component of the new capitol city was to have an Executive Mansion, now known as the White House. It’s hard to believe that this beautiful city, internationally reknown for its monuments and museums, was once just a swamp on the Potomac River…
Tags: birthday, District of Columbia, Pierre L'Enfant, Washington DC, White House
