Naming of Washington, D.C.
- When
- 1791
- Where
- Federal city on the Potomac River; Federal district on the Potomac
- Episodes
- 2
On September 9, 1791, three commissioners overseeing construction of the federal capital named the city Washington in honor of President George Washington, while the surrounding federal district received the name Columbia, a poetic name for the United States.
Episodes
- Commissioners name the city Washington
Three commissioners overseeing the capital's construction named the city in honor of President Washington on September 9, 1791.
- Federal district named Columbia
Simultaneously with the city's naming, the federal district received the name Columbia, a poetic name for the United States.
Background and detail
Background. The Constitution authorized a federal district as the seat of government, and the Residence Act of July 1790 approved a national capital on the Potomac River, with President Washington empowered to select the exact site.
The Naming of the City and District. The commissioners responsible for the capital's construction chose the name Washington for the city, honoring the sitting president, and simultaneously named the federal district Columbia, a common poetic name for the United States derived from Christopher Columbus.
Aftermath. In 1791 President Washington commissioned Pierre Charles L'Enfant to design the new capital, and a survey team led by Andrew Ellicott marked the district's borders with boundary stones in 1791 and 1792.
People involved
- George Washington · First U.S. president, in whose honor the city was named
- Pierre Charles L'Enfant · French-born military engineer commissioned to design the new capital
- Andrew Ellicott · Leader of the survey team that marked the federal district's borders
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.