# Was Trenton ever capital of the US?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-trenton-ever-capital-of-the-us/279676>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [December 13, 2004, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-trenton-ever-capital-of-the-us/279676 "2004-12-13T23:22:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2004, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-trenton-ever-capital-of-the-us/279676/1 "2004-12-13T23:22:17Z")

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In Cecil’s [column](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/041210.html) on York as a US capital, he says that Trenton New Jersey was capital 7. If so, it seems like news to Trenton.  
A summary of [Trenton history](http://www.ci.trenton.nj.us/historypage.html) doesn’t mention it. I lived in Princeton, and in Pennington (down Rte. 31 from Trenton) and I never heard of Trenton as the capital (though Princetonians never let us forget that Princeton was.)

Trenton did try to be the permanent capital - in fact one of the roads near where I lived was called Federal City Road, named in the hope it would lead to the heart of the US. Anyone have a cite about it becoming the capital, even from a meeting of Congress? Or did the pr blitz from 200 years ago fool Cecil?

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**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\
**Post date:** [December 14, 2004, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-trenton-ever-capital-of-the-us/279676/2 "2004-12-14T22:06:06Z")

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As Cecil’s article says, “capital” simply meant that the Continental Congress met there. [This](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Congress) Wikipedia entry lists the sessions of the Continental Congress, including one term from November 1, 1784, through Christmas Eve, 1784, when the Continental Congress met in Trenton.

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**Author:** ![oh\_s](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/b38774/32.png) [@oh\_s](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oh_s)\
**Post date:** [December 16, 2004, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-trenton-ever-capital-of-the-us/279676/3 "2004-12-16T12:58:11Z")

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> [@Voyager](#):
>
> In Cecil’s [column](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/041210.html) on York as a US capital, he says that Trenton New Jersey was capital 7. If so, it seems like news to Trenton.  
> A summary of [Trenton history](http://www.ci.trenton.nj.us/historypage.html) doesn’t mention it. I lived in Princeton, and in Pennington (down Rte. 31 from Trenton) and I never heard of Trenton as the capital (though Princetonians never let us forget that Princeton was.)
> 
> Trenton did try to be the permanent capital - in fact one of the roads near where I lived was called Federal City Road, named in the hope it would lead to the heart of the US. Anyone have a cite about it becoming the capital, even from a meeting of Congress? Or did the pr blitz from 200 years ago fool Cecil?

I’ll bet ten bucks you don’t know the capital of New Zealand is. No wonder they left the ANZUS treaty.

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**Author:** ![paperbackwriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@paperbackwriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paperbackwriter)\
**Post date:** [December 16, 2004, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-trenton-ever-capital-of-the-us/279676/4 "2004-12-16T14:42:31Z")

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Wellington. Where’s my ten bucks? Oh, I’d prefer USD to NZD.

But this relates to the actual question, how, exactly?

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**Author:** ![oh\_s](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/b38774/32.png) [@oh\_s](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oh_s)\
**Post date:** [December 16, 2004, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-trenton-ever-capital-of-the-us/279676/5 "2004-12-16T15:34:39Z")

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> [@paperbackwriter](#):
>
> Wellington. Where’s my ten bucks? Oh, I’d prefer USD to NZD.
> 
> But this relates to the actual question, how, exactly?

] Wellington, that’s New Zealand