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The US Constitution, ratified in 1788, provided for “a District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of Particular States..., become the Seat of the Government of the United States.”

In 1790 George Washington selected Pierre Charles L’Enfant, a French engineer, to lay out the city. The plan was influenced by Versailles and the city of Paris.

The United States declared war on Britain in 1812, seeking freedom of marine trade and the security of US seamen. In 1814 British troops entered the capital and burned government buildings, including the White House and the Capitol. If it had not rained, the whole city might have burned.

Thomas Jefferson began western expansion by organizing the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1803. The C&O Canal and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad provided commerce through the mountains and a period of prosperity. New states were added to the Union, and bitter divisions arose connected to the issue of slavery.

Conflict between the Union and the seceding southern states began on April 12, 1861, and plunged Washington and the nation into crisis. Union supporters, joined by thousands of blacks escaping slavery in the South, doubled the city’s population in four years. Although threatened, the city was never taken by Confederate troops, and when the war ended in 1865, Washington was unharmed.

The McMillan Plan of 1901, named for its congressional supporter, Senator James McMillan, was the first application of city planning in the US. It created much of the layout of the Mall and President’s Park seen today.

The Roosevelt era (1933–1945) brought tremendous growth to the city. Efforts to bring the nation out of the Great Depression increased the size and number of government agencies, and provided direct funds for construction. Most of the buildings in the Federal Triangle, the completion of the Supreme Court, and the National Gallery of Art were New Deal works.

More than 10 percent of the US population of approximately 115 million was in uniform at the peak of the war, and the central management of these troops remained in Washington.

On August 28, 1963, African-American leaders led 250,000 people to rally in front of the Lincoln Memorial in support of equal rights. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s eloquence in expressing his dream for America, along with the size of the march, gave strong impetus to the struggle for justice for all races.

The federal government’s policy of maintaining full control over the city was modified with the Home Rule Charter in 1973. This legislation gave the city the power to elect its own mayor, city council, and school board.