What is washington dc

Like many decisions in American history, the location of the new city was to be a compromise: Alexander Hamilton and northern states wanted the new federal government to assume Revolutionary War debts, and Thomas Jefferson and southern states who wanted the capital placed in a location friendly to slave-holding agricultural interests. He planned a grid system, at which the center would be the Capitol building.

Even before coming of age, DC was nearly completely destroyed. During the War of against Great Britain, enemy forces invaded the city and burned much of it to the ground, including the newly completed White House, the Capitol and the Library of Congress including all of its books. After the devastation, the city remained small, especially in terms of permanent residents. Soon it would become smaller in physical size as well. In , the portion of the city that had originally belonged to Virginia was retroceded, after the voters of Alexandria elected to leave DC, feeling that they had been left out of development on the other side of the river.

You can still see some surviving, original markers for the District today. The city only increased in size as a result of the Civil War. Slaves owned in Washington were emancipated on April 16, , nine months before the Emancipation Proclamation, and it therefore became a hub for freed slaves.

The National Mall receives about 24 million visitors each year. The National Geographic Society was founded in D. Come see us sometime! All rights reserved. Personality Quizzes. Funny Fill-In. Amazing Animals. Weird But True! Party Animals. Try This! Explore More. Please be respectful of copyright.

Unauthorized use is prohibited. Explore more. Senate in , was explicit about this intent. The s system that denied D. During that time, D. By then, many residents had moved to the suburbs of Maryland and Virginia where they had full voting rights. Black D. The first was the right to vote for the president and vice president through the 23rd Amendment, ratified in The city held its first presidential election in , voting overwhelmingly for the sitting president Lyndon B. Still, there were drawbacks to this victory.

Even though D. Since , D. The scene at a polling place in the nation's capital where residents were allowed to vote for the first time since , on November 3.

Self-governance was another battle. Despite such resistance, D. The next year, D. Washington as its first home-rule mayor. Still, there were limitations on what the new home-rule government could do. Congress has the right to reject any laws the D.