21 June 1783

Congress Driven From Philadelphia

A mutiny by unpaid soldiers in Philadelphia, which the local authorities would not call out the militia to suppress, forced the Continental Congress to leave the city and adjourn to Princeton, New Jersey.^[16] The Jefferson Cyclopedia dates Congress's adjournment to the journals of 21 June 1783.^{[17, p. 362]} The episode left Congress without a secure home and fed the long argument over where a permanent capital should stand.^[18]

16 July 1790

Residence Act Chooses the Potomac

Congress approved the Residence Act, placing the permanent seat of government on the Potomac River in a district ten miles square to be selected by the President.^[19] It was part of a bargain in which Jefferson and Madison agreed to ease passage of Hamilton's assumption bill, while Philadelphia would serve as temporary capital until the new city was ready in 1800.^{[3, p. 6]}

24 January 1791

Washington Announces the Federal District

President Washington announced the location of the new capital, a diamond-shaped ten-mile tract at the confluence of the Potomac and the Eastern Branch, a mere twelve miles from his Mount Vernon home.^{[3, p. 6]}

9 March 1791

L'Enfant Arrives to Plan the City

Pierre Charles L'Enfant, selected by Washington to prepare a ground plan for the new city, arrived in Georgetown.^{[20, p. 2]} He was a French artist and engineer who had befriended Washington in the Revolutionary War and had requested the honour of designing the capital.^{[3, p. 7]}

15 April 1791

First Boundary Stone at Jones Point

The south cornerstone of the federal territory was formally installed at Jones Point in Alexandria, Virginia, the first of forty boundary stones set at one-mile intervals around the ten-mile diamond.^{[3, p. 7]} The boundaries rested on celestial calculations by Benjamin Banneker, working with surveyor Andrew Ellicott.^{[3, p. 7]}

c. 26 August 1791

L'Enfant Submits His Plan

L'Enfant presented the President with his report and plan for the federal city.^{[20, p. 2]} It combined a grid of streets with diagonal avenues radiating from the sites for Congress and the President's House.^{[3, p. 7]}

9 September 1791

District and City Named

The three commissioners notified L'Enfant that the federal district would be called the Territory of Columbia and the federal city the City of Washington.^[21]

c. 1 March 1792

L'Enfant Dismissed

Washington ordered L'Enfant dismissed for insubordination after he refused to furnish his plan to be engraved and published for the lot sale.^{[22, p. 91]} His assistant Andrew Ellicott continued the execution of the plan, and Jefferson soon organised a design contest for the President's House.^{[4, p. 1]}

18 September 1793

Capitol Cornerstone Laid

Washington laid the southeast cornerstone of the Capitol in a Masonic ceremony, the first of the great public buildings to be begun in the new city.^[23][8]

17 November 1800

Government Moves to Washington

With the wings of the Capitol sufficiently prepared, the government removed to the District on 17 November 1800, ten years after the Residence Act.^[24] Only the north wing of the Capitol was finished, and the Senate met in a two-story room on its ground floor.^{[25, p. 2]}