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| Washington DC Apartment Locator Services : Washington DC |  | Contents | |
| History |
| A Southern site for the capital
was agreed at a dinner between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. The initial
plan for the Federal City was a diamond, ten miles wide on each side, giving it
100 square miles (260 square kilometers). The actual site on the Potomac River
was chosen by President Washington. Washington may have chosen the site for its
natural scenery, in the belief that the Potomac would become a great navigable
waterway, or even in the hope of increasing the value of his land holdings in
the area. | On August 24, 1814, British
forces burnt the capital during the most notable destructive raid of the War of
1812. President James Madison and U.S. forces fled and British forces burned public
buildings including the Capitol, the Navy Yard, and the Treasury building. The
Presidential Mansion was also gutted.
| | Washington
remained a small city of a few thousand permanent residents until the outbreak
of the U.S. Civil War in 1861. The significant expansion of the federal government
to administer the war—and its legacies, such as veterans' pensions—led
to notable growth in the city's population. But on April 14, 1865, just days after
the end of the war, president Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes
Booth in Ford's Theater. | | |
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