History.— In order to secure a permanent capital of the United States, Con,gress, in July 1790, created a commission with President George Washington at its head, to select a site, not to exceed 10 miles square, within specified points on the banks of the Potomac River. That commission chose the present site of the .capital. Several experimental namings of the city and the tract of which it is a part resulted finally in the names Washington and the Dis trict of Columbia. Major L'Enfant, a French engineer, serving in the Continental arrny, su penntended the laying out of the city according to a plan outlined by Washington, a plan said to.have been derived from the outlines of Ver sailles, France. Lack of sympathy and support brought about the resignation of the disheart ened L'Enfant. Andrew Ellicott, a Pennsylvania engineer, took up the work abandoned by the former. The seat of government was removed from Philadelphia to Washington in MOO. In November of that year the national legislature met for the first time at the new capital. At the outset Congress placed the administrative affairs of the city in the hands of three com missioners; but, dissatisfied with the results of this experiment, hi 1802 the city of Washington was made a corporate town with a mayor, board of aldermen and a common council. The first mayor was appointed by the President, but the later inctunbents of the 'mayoralty were elected by the people. Georgetown and Alexandria were included within the Federal district. These, existing as towns prior to the Revolu tion, remained corporate towns with independ ent municipal governments. In 1814 the city was captured by an expeditionary force of British soldiers. The Capitol, the White House and other government buildings were destroyed by fire. For the first 70 years of its existence as the capital of the United States, Washington was nothing more than the most forlorn of villages. No serious move toward municipal development and improvement was made. The United States government then, as now, paid no taxes on its property holdings within the District. Appropriations for city maintenance were lamentably meagre and insufficient. This lack of public spirit lost to the District that part of it originally belonging to Virginia, for Ill 1846, on petition of the citizens of Alex andria, the Virginia section of the Federal ter ritory was receded to that State. In 1871 the creation of a territorial form of government brought the District once more under Federal control. This event marks the beginning of the era of progress which, at the present time, is reaching a ripe maturity. The board of public worlcs, created by Congress at that time, projected, in the face of parsimony and preju dice, a substantial and permanent plan of pub lic improvements. The city was cleared of the most objectionable of the results of a haphazard and makeship expediency. The obliterated lines of city planning set by Washington and L'Enfant were reset. The constructive vision, under which the present city is moving so vig orously forward, began to be apparent. Certain dissatisfactions with the territorial form of government developed, however, and in June 1878 Congress established the commission form of government under which the city is now administered.
Population.— The essential function of the Federal city is that of transacting the enormous bulk of business that the operations of the government impose. This singular municipal functioning determines, to a great extent, not only the fundamental character of the popu lation as a whole, but that of the city itself as well. The govertunent business is; in contrast to that of huge traffic and manufacturing cen tres, a physically clean and smokeless business; one, too, that does not exact tuisightly con gested sections. Washington is, therefore, a city of dear atmosphere, of wide spaces throughout and of general cleanliness of ap pearance. The core of the population consists of those e d in the business of the gov enunent. "nrregegovernment officials and clerks, alone, constitute a city of about 110,000. The Executive and his Cabinet, members of Con gress and of the judiciary, representatives of foreign powers and representatives of the United States army and navy in official ad ministrative capadty greatly increase this num ber. Each class is materially augmented by official and domestic families. To this basic population are added thousands of unclassified residents on the one hand and on the other hand thousands more who are engaged in such occupations and professions as are required to meet the needs of the whole. In 1920 the popu
lation of Washington was 435,428; in 1917, 395,947; in 1916, 437,414; in 1913, 353,297; and in 1910, 331,069. In but a slightly varying relation, two-thirds of these are shown to be of the white race. The remaining one-third are negroes. In 1919 the total assessment of real and personal property was $785,539,666. The budget for the same year amounted to $22,865,676.
The New Washington, 1917-19.—President Wilson's Declaration of War against the Cen tral Powers of Europe in April, 1917, speedily transformed the capital from a city of leisurely government procedures to a highly electrified national centre of war activities. To aid in the enormous speeding up of government machinery imposed by the fact of war itself, meu and women from all parts of the country hastened weeldy by hundredi and thousands to the capi tal. By far the larger part of these were absorbed by the urgent clerical demands of the govertunent departments. The smaller part — men and women of exceptional training and experience—were grouped in special bureaus whose common purpose was to accelerate, to co-ordinate, and to control the mobilization of the vast material resources required to support in full efficiency the man power of actual mili tary service. Conspicuous among these bureaus were those taking charge of food, fuel, trans portation, and housing. Bolling Field, Camps Meigs, Meade, Humphreys, Leach, instruction and concentration camps, in the immediate vi cinity of Washington, stressed the tax upon the city's resources. In less than a year the popula tion was increased by 59,480. This sudden and excessive increase presented promptly the acute problem of house and office accommodations. Every available building, or any part thereof, was commandeered to meet the situation. Be sides, there were erected, chiefly along the Mall, temporary office huildings that cover acres of this area. Upon the Plaza between Union Sta tion and the Capitol, the United States Housing Corporation built, also, a series of government hotels for the use of wotnen war workers. Supplementing the activity of these government agencies was the equally enthusiastic and effici ent war service of the municipality itself. Twezity thousamd men from the District entered military service, Emulative service banners adorned business house and home. The District quotas of Liberty and Victory loans were more than met in a rush of patriotic fervor. The local Red Cross, conununity centre,s, the District Council of Defence, the Boy Scouts, welfare organizations of every creed and pur pose, joined full-heartedly in the supreme busi ness of (carrying on.) Women released men from civil service in a competent substitution. Then the war. Then the armistice. Gradually the tide of transient residents is moving away front; Washington and slowly a Washington of new outlook and aim is shaping under the inspiration of its patriotic shareholding in the vicissitudes of a world at war.
Bibliography.— Brown, Glenn, (History of the United States Capitol> (2 vols., Washing ton 1900-03) ; Bryan, W. B., (Bibliography of the District of Columbia) (in (Senate Docu ments, Fifty-sixth Congress, 1st Session, No. 61,) ib 19M) ; id., (History of the National Capital' (Vol. I, New York 1914) • Cox, W. V., (Celebration of the One Hundrelith Anniver sary of Washington, 1800-1900) (in (House Documents, Fifty-sixth Congress, 2d Session, No. 552,) Washington 1901) ; Crew, H. W. (ed.), 'Centennial History of the City of Wash ington) (ib. 1892).; Crook, W. H., 'Through Five Administrations) (New York 1910) ; Dodd, W. F., (The Government of the District of Columbia) (Washington 1909); Forbes Lindsay, C. H. A., (Washington: The City and Seat of Government) (Philadelphia 1908); Leupp, F. E., (Walks About Washington) (Bos ton 1915) ; Taft and Bryce, (Washington, the Nation's Capital) (Washington 1915); Tindall, W., (Origin and Government of the District of Columbia) (Washington 1909) ; Todd, C. B., (Story of Washington) (New York 1889); Varnum, J. B., 'The Seat of Government of the United States) (Washington 1854) ; Whar ton, A. H., 'Social Life in the Early Repub lic) (Philadelphia 1902); Wilson, R. R., (Wash ington: The Capital City) (2 vols., Philadel phia 1902).