Washington, D.C. | History, Map, Population, & Facts - Britannica

Washington, D.C. is the capital of the United States of America and a cosmopolitan city in its own right, one that continues to struggle with the impact of the compromise that created it more than 235 years ago.

Located on the banks of the Potomac River and socially, economically, and geographically tied to adjacent states of Maryland and Virginia, Washington, D.C., is a culturally vibrant, racially and ethnically diverse city that is in many ways the ultimate example of a company town. But in D.C. the “company” is the federal government. As of 2025, more than 168,000 federal jobs were based in D.C., meaning that more than one of every five jobs in the city were government positions.

It is also home to some of the nation’s most iconic buildings including the White House, the U.S. Capitol, the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, the 2.5 mile long expanse of greenspace known as the National Mall, and a host of Smithsonian museums.

In 1790 the U.S. Congress established a 100-square-mile (260-square-km) territory to serve as the permanent seat of the federal government. (The territory was later named the District of Columbia, within which the city of Washington was built.) The location for the new territory was centralized among the Eastern Seaboard states and was about 90 miles (145 km) inland from the Atlantic Ocean on land ceded by Maryland and Virginia. In the mid-19th century the land south of the Potomac River that had been ceded by Virginia was returned to the state, reducing the District to its present-day size.

After the American Civil War (1861–65), the city of Washington expanded beyond its originally planned boundaries and became legally indistinguishable from the District of Columbia. Washington, D.C., remains a territory, not a state, and since 1974 it has been governed by a locally elected mayor and city council over which Congress retains the power of veto. The Washington metropolitan area covers nearly 4,000 square miles (10,360 square km) and encompasses 10 counties, 5 in Maryland (Montgomery, Prince George’s, Frederick, Charles, and Calvert) and 5 in Virginia (Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, Stafford, and Prince William). Area District, 68 square miles (176 square km). Pop. (2000) 572,059; Washington-Arlington-Alexandria Metro Division, 3,727,565; Washington-Arlington-Alexandria Metro Area, 4,796,183; (2010) 601,723; Washington-Arlington-Alexandria Metro Division, 4,377,088; Washington-Arlington-Alexandria Metro Area, 5,582,170.

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