DC History

The Residence Act of 1790 authorized a federal capital on the Potomac — a compromise between Northern and Southern states brokered by Hamilton, Jefferson, and Madison. President Washington personally chose the site at the confluence of the Potomac and Anacostia rivers.

French-born engineer Pierre Charles L'Enfant designed the city in 1791 with broad diagonal avenues over a grid, anchored by the Capitol and the President's House. Surveyor Andrew Ellicott and free Black astronomer Benjamin Banneker laid out the boundary stones — many still stand today.

During the War of 1812, British troops marched on the city in August 1814 and torched the White House, the Capitol, and the Treasury. First Lady Dolley Madison famously rescued the Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington before fleeing.

A freak thunderstorm — sometimes called 'the storm that saved Washington' — extinguished the fires the next day. Reconstruction took years, and the original sandstone walls of the White House still bear scorch marks under the paint.

DC was originally a perfect 10×10 mile diamond. In 1846, Congress retroceded the portion south of the Potomac back to Virginia — that land is today's Arlington County and part of Alexandria. The decision was driven partly by Alexandrians wanting to keep the slave trade legal, which Congress was moving to ban in DC.

DC was a majority-Black city by the 1950s but had no elected local government — Congress ran it directly. The 23rd Amendment (1961) finally gave DC residents a vote for President. The Home Rule Act of 1973 created an elected mayor and city council. Walter Washington was sworn in as the first mayor in 1975.

DC still has no voting representation in Congress — only a non-voting delegate in the House. License plates read 'Taxation Without Representation' in protest.

The Height of Buildings Act of 1910 caps building heights based on the width of the adjacent street, plus 20 feet — generally ~130 feet downtown. That's why DC has no skyscrapers, the Washington Monument still dominates the skyline, and most of the city has a low European feel.