#OnThisDay in 1791, the new federal city under construction on the east bank of the Potomac River was named in honor of President Washington. That same day, the district surrounding the city was named Columbia—the feminine form of Columbus—in a then-patriotic nod to the man believed to have discovered America. Congress held its first session in the newly constructed city in 1800, and it has remained the seat of the United States government to this day. Image: Plan of the city of Washington in the territory of Columbia, ceded by the states of Virginia and Maryland to the United States of America, and by them established as the seat of their government after the year MDCC, surveyed by Andrew Ellicott and printed by Thackara & Vallance, 1792, Maryland Center for History and Culture, H. Furlong Baldwin Library, Large Map Collection. #DCHistory #Maryland #history #Virginia #DC