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.
After, it remained a home to a significant and vibrant African American population, which included abolitionist Frederick Douglass. A substantial army was set up just to protect the capital during the war, and the federal government grew around this administration.
The expansion of streetcar lines in the midth century spurred creation of new suburbs. This included a redesign and expansion of the National Mall , now the crown jewel of DC. Today, these downtown areas are undergoing an urban renaissance, and many people are moving back into Washington itself. Though a capital city, it is ironic that residents of Washington lack full self-governance. Representation in Congress is limited to a non-voting delegate to the House of Representatives and a shadow senator.
In , Washingtonians were first allowed to vote in Presidential elections; the city was allowed to elect its own mayor only in Two congressmen from Virginia were also there. The four men talked politics. Southern votes had defeated a bill in Congress that Mister Hamilton wanted very much to be approved.
It would have required the federal government to pay the money owed by the states for fighting the war to gain independence from Britain. The two Virginia congressmen agreed to change their votes against the bill.
And, Mister Hamilton agreed to find northern votes to support a proposal to build the capital along the Potomac River between the states of Virginia and Maryland. That is how Congress agreed to build the capital in a federal area on land provided by the two states.
The larger federal area would be named the District of Columbia. Columbia had become another name for the United States, one that was used by poets and other writers. Today, Washington, D. But if you want to write to us, our address is Washington, D.
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