GEORGE WASHINGTON & WASHINGTON DC
George Washington & Washington DC THE FEDERAL CITY
P
resident George Washington played a key role in the founding of Washington, DC as our nation’s capital. In the beginning, and between 1776 and 1800, the capital of the United States of America moved on fourteen occasions from one city to another. Following the ratification of the Constitution of the United States, George Washington, the first president, argued for the need of a permanent site for the Federal Capital. Given the rivalries that existed among the various states, President George Washington argued for the establishment of a “neutral” site that would neither be a State nor part of any State and would be located along the Patawomeke (Potomac) River. With the Act of 1790, the Congress of the United States specified the location of a federal district of “ten miles square” to be situated at any point above the Eastern Branch of the Potomac River. On March 3, 1791, at the request of President George Washington, the Congress modified the location of the federal district to include the town of Alexandria, several miles below that point – Alexandria was ceded back to the State of Virginia in 1846.
• “A Vision Unfolds” – Painting by Peter Waddell Copyright 2005 Grand Lodge, F.A.A.M., of the District of Columbia 20
Deputy Grand Master
tect of the Federal District, President George Washington had another hurdle to overcome – how to deal with the privately owned lands located within the district’s limits. On March 29, General Uriah Forrest hosted a meeting a meeting at his home for President George Washington to address the principal landowners of the federal district in the presence of the newly appointed commissioners. George Washington recorded his success that evening in his own diary:
Having picked Major Pierre Charles L’Enfant as the archi-
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Akram R. Elias,
“The parties to whom I addressed myself yesterday evening, having taken the matter into consideration, saw the propriety of my observations; and whilst they were contending for the shadow they might lose the substance; and therefore mutually agreed and entered into articles to surrender for public purposes, one half the land they severally possessed within the bounds which were designated as necessary for the city to stand. This business being thus happily finished and some directions given to the Surveyor and Engineer with respect to the mode of laying out the district – Surveying the grounds of the City and forming them into lots – I left Georgetown, dined in Alexandria and reached Mount Vernon in the evening.” [1] In September 1791, the commissioners agreed to call the federal district “The Territory of Columbia” and the federal city “The City of Washington.” Although L’Enfant was dismissed less than a year after he was hired, he was able to set the mold into which the city was formed. In fact, no other person, with the sole exception of George Washington himself, had greater influence on the city’s conception and development. [2] Following Pierre L’Enfant’s dismissal as superintendent of the Federal City, George Washington kept the pressure on to insure that construction of the new capital would stay on schedule.
