beltway

Incorporating two pre-existing settlements of Alexandria in the state of Virginia and Georgetown in Maryland, with a survey team delineating the boundaries (see previously), a new federal city was constructed on the northern bank of the Potomac—the overseeing commissioners named their capital on this day in 1791 in honour of President George Washington, the district called Columbia—the feminine post-classical Latin form of Cristoforo Columbo and a toponym to mirror Britannia, et al.