Episode 2 of 2
Federal district named Columbia
- When
- September 9, 1791
- Where
- Federal district on the Potomac
- Part of
- Naming of Washington, D.C.
Simultaneously with the city's naming, the federal district received the name Columbia, a poetic name for the United States.
When the commissioners named the city Washington, they also gave the federal district the name Columbia. This was a poetic name for the United States commonly used at the time, being the feminine form of the name Columbus, in reference to Christopher Columbus. The name "Washington" is a more recent addition to the city's common name, drawn from George Washington, the first U.S. president.
Sources
- Washington, D.C. Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-01
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.