Washington [antikvár]

Selecting the Site, or Two Heads are Better Than One Washington, D. C., is one of the loveliest of American cities. Yet, for 75 years after its selection as the Capital of the United States, the city had to resist powerful political, social, and cultural forces that wanted it moved elsewhere. Only after the Civil War (1865) did critics finally yield to the obvious and inevitable. Washington, the District of Columbia, the Federal City, the Capital, was here to stay! Why was a muddy bog, an unhealthy marsh on the banks of the Potomac River, selected - certainly an unenviable location when one considers the 18th-century charm of New York, Philadelphia, or Baltimore? As many historians will tell you, look for the economic reasons. After having met in various cities in Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, Congress moved to New York City in 1785. But the site of a permanent Capital had still not been selected. Northerners wanted a northern site. Southerners desired a location closer to home, preferably on the Potomac, whidi borders Virginia. At a dinner meeting between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton in 1790, a solution was reached. In exchange for the Federal Government assuming the war debts accrued by the states during the Revolutionary War, the Capital would be selected at a site on the Potomac. George Washington was authorized to make the selection. In his youth, Washington had been a surveyor and was well acquainted with the territory