Washington, D.C.

The federal capital and the country’s only federal district, standing on the northeast bank of the Potomac across from Virginia and surrounded on land by Maryland. The Constitution called in 1789 for a district under the exclusive jurisdiction of Congress, belonging to no state or territory; the Residence Act of 16 July 1790 approved its creation along the Potomac. The district was named for Columbia, the female personification of the nation; Washington, for the first president, is the more recent half of the name.