Washington, D.C.'s skyline is no chance of fate. Originally planned by French architect Pierre L'Enfant in 1791 and enhanced by the work of the McMillan Commission in 1901, city building restrictions limit structures to 160 feet in height, thus ensuring that the city's Baroque steeples, monuments and memorials, and classical domes create a visual statement.
DC was selected by then-President George Washington in 1790 as the site of the nation's capital, probably because of its proximity to his home Mount Vernon across the Potomac. While that's the short story on how the city site was selected, there was a lot more involved than Washington's decree: his selection was the culmination of years of political haggling while Congress discussed just where the new nation's capital city should go. Once the critical need for a permanent home for Congress was established (Congress had been operating in a nomadic fashion until that time, meeting across several different cities and even states), the general area around the Potomac River was chosen by James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton. Maryland and Virginia agreed to cede the land to be a special federal district that was not part of any state but instead under federal ownership. The District of Columbia was established in 1891 and was ten miles square.
Washington then commissioned L'Enfant, a Revolutionary War soldier who served with Washington, to develop the city's design and to oversee its construction. Although L'Enfant's tenure on the job did not last long, much of his initial vision was retained and implemented, and the Washington DC of today is remarkably similar to L'Enfant's original sketch: the Capitol would be established at the center, from which would extend grand avenues radiating out into the city, originating from both the White House and house of Congress, known later as the Capitol Building. L'Enfant stressed the importance of open public spaces, space for monuments, fountains, and broad avenues lined with trees.
Unfortunately, L'Enfant's grand vision coupled with a haughty demeanor contributed to his demise: when a prominent landowner built a new manor house that obstructed one of L'Enfant's planned vistas, he demanded that it be demolished, and when the landowner refused, L'Enfant tore it down himself.
Washington reluctantly fired L'Enfant, and a map was then produced to record L'Enfant's plan. Construction proceeded slowly, and Congress and President John Adams officially moved from Philadelphia to DC in 1800. But the War of 1812 forced the federal government to flee the city, and in 1814, British forces burned the capital including the Presidential Mansion (not yet called the White House), the U.S. Capitol, the Arsenal, the Navy Yard, the Treasury Building, the War Office, and the bridge across the Potomac. It wasn't until 1819 that the buildings were restored, and Congress and then President James Monroe were able to move back in.
DC grew slowly in population over the next few decades until the Civil War when the federal government, its agencies, and military expanded to meet the challenges of the war, and the city doubled in population from 60,000 to 120,000. Interestingly, DC abolished slavery on April 16, 1862, a full eight months before Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Just before the war's end, President Lincoln was shot in Ford's Theater on April 14, 1865, the first president in the nation's history to be assassinated.
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