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Show ' WASHINGTON- OUR NINTH CAPITAL CITY Washington, the ninth capital city of the United States,, has now, according ac-cording to a recent estimate of the census office, a half million people as against 8000 in 1800 when Congress held its first meeting at that spot af-'ter af-'ter a quarter of a century of wandering, wander-ing, in which period it had held sea-, sea-, sions in eight cities located in four different States of the Union. It was on Wall Street, nearly op-! poslte the present site of The Nation- j al City Bank of New York, that Con-J gress', after holding its sessions in j ho less than eight cities and towns ! determined to establish a new capital city for the United States on the banks of the Potomac. The Congress, which held its early sessions in Philadelphia Phil-adelphia in 1774 and 75, says thu Trade Record of the National City Bank of New York, removed from -' Philad?lphia to Baltimore in 177, to avoid capture by the British Army Ar-my which was then marching from New York to Philadelphia, then held sessions at Langcaster and York, Pennsylvania, and after returning temporarily to Philadelphia, remov-ed remov-ed t Princeton, New Jersey, where it was decided to establish two capitals cap-itals for the new republic, one to be located "near the falls of the Delaware" Del-aware" and one "near the falls of the Potomac," the meeting of the Congress Con-gress to be held alternately at Annapolis An-napolis and Trenton during the construction con-struction of the new capital buildings build-ings on the respective sites. One ses- ' sion was held at Annapolis and another ano-ther at Trenton, but while at the latter lat-ter place Congress decided to move to New York where more convenient buildings were available, and until 1789 held its sessions1 on Wall street as above indicated, nearly opposite the present home of The National : City Bank of New York. While located in New York, how-' uver, the question of the location of a permanent capital for the United I States was again raised, and a measure mea-sure passed providing for the estao--liahment of a new capital city on the banks of the Potomac, the exact lo-' cation to be determined by President Washington; and he, with the aid of certain officials appointed to cooperate cooper-ate with him, decided upon the spot now occupied by the city of Washington Wash-ington and the District of Columbia, part of the area for the proposed Federal District to be ceded by trie State of Maryland, and part to be ceded by the State of Virginia, the en tire area of the proposed district to be 10 miles sqiuire or 100 square nines, meantime, congress returned from Wall Street to its former home in Philadelphia, and thence removed, with its belongings to the new city of Washington in th eyear 1800, holding a session in the unfinished capitol building, which had been put under construction subsequent to the' selection of the proposed site. The oopulation of the District of Columbia in 1800, including that of several small towns located within! this area, was about 8000. In 1814 the Capitol building was burned by the British, and a building was con.-struct-ed as the temporary home of Congress. The development of the new building constructed to take the place of that burned by the British made slow progress, the building as originally planned being completed 1 in 1827, extensions at the northern and southern ends for the occupancy occupan-cy of the Senate and House, having been completed in 185 9, while new granite buildings in the immediate vicinity, recently erected at the cost of . about 8 million dollars, are now .itinzed as committee rooms and of-ficos of-ficos of the two bodies. The value of the Capitol ruildings and grounds was estimated in 1911 at $25,000,-000 $25,000,-000 A. . |