This one came up a couple nights ago while watching Ben Stein. If the D.C. in Washington stands for District of Columbia, it stands to reason that Washington is then only part of a larger “Columbia.” Where is the rest of it? Are there other districts?
“In this life you must be oh so smart, or oh so pleasant. For years I was smart. I recommend pleasant.” -Elwood P. Dowd in “Harvey”
I gleaned this info off of the DC Public Library’s FAQs about Washington, D.C.
From the Commissioners to Pierre L’Enfant:
Georgetown, September 9, 1791
"Sir:
We have agreed that the Federal district shall be called the ‘Territory of Columbia’ and the Federal city the ‘City of Washington.’ The title of the map will therefore be, A Map of the City of Washington, in the Territory of Columbia.
We have also agreed the streets to be named alphabetically one way and numerically the other, the former divided into north and south lettes, the latter into east and west numbers, from the Capitol.
Signed
Th[omas] Johnson
D[avid] Stuart
Dan[iel] Carroll
It goes on to say that in 1793, everyone started using “District” instead of “Territory.”
I would take this to mean that the district referred to all of the land claimed by the Federal government, which originally was supposed to include a section of Virginia and Washington was to refer to the place where people lived and worked. I imagine that even in 1800, large sections of DC were not inhabitable.
I guess that would make sense, and in our somewhat inebriated state it’s not surprising we didn’t think of it (I forgot to mention we were watching Ben Stein at the tavern). I guess, the city (Washington) was only part of the whole (Columbia) but has now grown to cover it all.
I recall reading somewhere that Washington (the state) was originally going to be called “Columbia”, but people thought it would get confused with the “District of Columbia”. Of course, today it’s confused with Washington, DC! Anyone know if this is just an urban legend?
Arjuna34
The original District of Columbia was a rhomboid or diamond shaped section carved out of Maryland (Washington, Georgetown, and surrounding areas) and Virginia (Alexandria and surrounding area). (Quite a bit of wrangling took place before the actual site and its borders was determined.) The land was surveyed in 1791, but Alexandria was not transferred to the District until 1801. By 1803 (!) Alexandria was petitioning to be returned to Virginia and that occurred in 1847. As the city of Washington grew, it eventually incorporated Georgetown and became one and the same as the District of Columbia.
If you look at a map of D.C., you can see the original outline with the bite taken out of the soutwest corner where Alexandria was removed.
Tom~
As Tom pointed out, not everything in the District of Columbia was originally the City of Washington. For example, Georgetown existed well before D.C. was founded, and the seal of Georgetown University actually mentions that it was founded in Georgetown, Maryland. For a while, there was a Georgetown, D.C. and (before 1847) an Alexandria, D.C. Eventually, Georgetown was absorbed by the city of Washington.
Also, I believe that the original District was supposed to be a square ten miles on each side. If you look at a map of D.C. and Alexandria, it becomes obvious that Arlington was originally supposed to be part of the district, since the borders of Arlington continue the perfect square of the District. It’s only when it reaches the borders of Alexandria that the square stops.
One last thing–although Arlington is part of Virginia, it’s the home of three institutions that are considered part of Washington–Arlington Cemetary, Fort Meyer, and National Airport.
So there is no territory outside the city of Washington, but inside the District of Columbia, right? As far as I can tell from maps, there isn’t.
A W, Yoouu arrre coorrrrect, sir!
(I don’t know the year that the city of Washington swallowed Georgetown and all the previous farmland/suburbs.)
Tom~
So where’s my million dollars?
Not for NOTHING, but the first FREAKING PRESIDENT WAS A SURVEYOR BY TRADE ( sigh ). But then…when this debate took place ( 1791) , the National Capitol was…New York still? Hmm. Anyway, Georgie-Boy could have helped out a wee bit in the surveying aspects. Did he???
Cartooniverse
p.s. I realize that I’m kind of hijacking your thread, but it’s still a part of the same cloth 
If you want to kiss the sky, you’d better learn how to kneel.
AFAIK, the surveying of the nation’s capital was done primarily by Pierre L’Enfant and Benjamin Banneker.
Washington did help pick out the site, especially since it was close to Mount Vernon.
On the city web site for Alexandria,
http://ci.alexandria.va.us/oha/archaeology/ar-decades.html
they said that Washington deliberately avoided involving himself in the actual decision because he had extensive land holding around Alexandria and was afraid of being accused of selecting the site for personal gain. I don’t know enough about the actual behind-the-scenes skullduggery to know how accurate the claim is. (In his day, Washington was known as a man with a sharp eye for a coin. It is plausible that he might avoid helping with a decision that could turn to his advantage if he thought his reputation was at stake. Plausibility is not the same as fact, however, so I really don’t know.)
Tom~
According to Stanley Elkins & Eric McKittrick in “The Age of Federalism”, the 1790 act that placed the capital on the Potomac gave the current president, one George Washington, the authority to place the capital anywhere he saw fit on an 80-mile stretch of the Potomac.
Washington also negotiated some of the land purchases.
It was Jefferson who was more involved in the actual planning of the city as that was something more to his liking.
The choice of the Potomac was the result of a major political compromise where Jeffersonians agreed to Hamilton’s plan for Federal assumption of pre-Revolution state debts and the Hamiltonians agreed to move the capital from New York to a new city to be built on the Potomac.
Gazoo Wrote:
Good discussion, but has anybody answered the question?
Columbia is an archaic term meaning America. i.e. Land of Columbus.
“Shoplifting is a victimless crime. Like punching someone in the dark.” -Nelson Muntz.
OK, so the city of Washington was originally a small subset of the District of Columbia. Does anyone know the boundaries of the old city?
(Let me hijack the thread for a moment)
It seems to me that DC has a basic representation problem - taxation without representation. DC residents pay taxes just like everybody else, yet they do not have voting members of Congress (Eleanor Holmes Norton does not vote, just lobbies). DC residents have been agitating for “home rule” for years now, but there have been several counter-arguments, the most intractable one being about inherent conflict-of-interest issues if the nation’s capitol were to be located in a particular state.
One solution might be to redefine the District of Columbia to core area where the White House and Congress actually sit, cede the rest to Maryland, and either (a) evict the residents of the newly-redefined DC or (b) exempt them from Federal taxes. Hence my interest in what the old boundaries were - maybe they could serve as the new boundaries.
As I mentioned in regards to the diamond shape and Edward J Cunningham expounded on, the current District is the original district except that the Potomac River is now the southwest border rather than the original 10x10 mile square tipped up 45°.
There have been proposals that D.C. be redefined as the Capitol, the Whitehouse, the Mall, (with a few extra acres of monuments and government buildings) while the city of Washington is returned to Maryland. The governor of Maryland has actually stated that he would not oppose such a measure. (I don’t know if that will cost him the next election.)
I think the idea might work. Maryland will surely demand some sort of financial assistance to complete the transfer, but it would stop the periodic idiot calls to turn D.C. into the 51st state.
Tom~
FYI:
Along the border of the original District of Columbia were borderstones placed every mile. I’ve found most of the ones along the southwestern edge. A historical society has enclosed them in protective cages. One eludes me; I’m afraid it may have been accidentally plowed over in development.
I haven’t the cojones to explore the other edges of the District; they’re not nice neighborhoods.
The original southwest border, through Alexandria, roughly paralleled Leesburg Pike/King Street (Rt. 7). King Street, though, turns into a east-west street once it hits the Old Town area.
Wrong thinking is punished, right thinking is just as swiftly rewarded. You’ll find it an effective combination.
Let me see, here. Since the District isn’t a state, it doesn’t have voting members in the Senate and House of Representatives. But there are problems with the District being a state AND the capital of the Nation.
The idea of creating a tiny “federal core” in the heart of Washington while returning the rest of the District to Maryland seems almost as problematic as a 51st state (Columbia?). All the embassies up and down Massachusetts Avenue would be in Maryland? Great! State, federal, AND foreign governments bickering when some minor foreign diplomat gets in a car accident or is busted hiring a hooker. 
If the problem is representation in Congress, why not fix JUST that problem? Amend the Constitution so that the District has the same VOTING representation in Congress that it would if it were a state, and leave the rest of the District’s legal status as is.
Amending the Constitution isn’t as drastic as it sounds, and there’s already solid precedent for fixing D.C.'s “limbo” status with an amendment. Back in 1961, the 23rd Amendment gave District residents (when they are also US citizens of legal voting age, etc.) participation in the election of the President by treating the District for Electoral College purposes as if it were a state.
After living in the DC area for 14 years and listening to the residents of the District complain about “taxation without representation”, etc., what I say is:
Just move 5 @!#?@! miles in any direction and you’ll be in either Maryland or Virginia. Try it! The crime rate’s lower, the roads are in better shape, the gas is cheaper (in VA).
It’s not like they’re Puerto Rico or Guam and stuck in the middle of the ocean.
Wrong thinking is punished, right thinking is just as swiftly rewarded. You’ll find it an effective combination.
I’ll wait here while you go tell the folks in NYC, LA, Chicago, etc. why the city of Washington gets two senators and they don’t.
I don’t think your idea is inherently dumb, but it raises a lot more issues.
Tom~