In 1783, Congress decided that the nation's capital would move from Philadelphia in 1800. After much debate, members passed the Residence Act, which outlined a ten-miles-square site on the Potomac River along the Virginia– Maryland border, an area that President George Washington had selected.

President John Adams was the first leader to govern from Federal City, later named Washington, D.C., in honor of our nation's first president. Today, the city of Washington exists as the District of Columbia (D.C.), the federal district of the United States, named after Christopher Columbus.

While the area was being surveyed, Washington and Thomas Jefferson selected French architect Pierre L'Enfant to design the city, which, at the time it was surveyed, included Georgetown (Maryland) and Alexandria (Virginia). L'Enfant's plan featured broad avenues radiating out from Capitol Hill, interrupted by a series of rectangular and circular parks, all overlaid with a perpendicular grid of streets. The grid was then slashed with diagonal avenues named for the thirteen original states.

The French architect began supervising construction, but lacked a cost-containment attitude. After his many quarrels with public officials, he was dismissed in 1792. L'Enfant died in poverty in 1825, but appreciation of his architectural vision grew in later generations. Over the years, most of his ideas were realized.

When the government transfer took effect in 1800, the town boasted fewer than 5,000 people. Of course, the British burning of important buildings (including the White House) in 1814 did much to halt early growth. In 1847, the part of the district that lies on the Potomac's western banks was returned to Virginia, and today Washington, D.C., covers only about two-thirds its original size. The residential population grew to approximately 52,000 by 1850, and then increased dramatically, reaching 132,000 by 1870.