George Washington was inaugurated as the first United States president in New York City in 1789.
The ceremony took place on April 30, 1789, at Federal Hall, then located on Wall Street. New York City was the nation's capital at the time, before the federal government moved first to Philadelphia and later to Washington, D.C. Washington took the presidential oath on the building's second-floor balcony before a large public crowd.
Robert R. Livingston, the chancellor of New York, administered the oath because the federal judiciary had not yet been organized. Washington then delivered his first inaugural address in the Senate chamber. The ceremony marked the practical beginning of the executive branch under the new Constitution.
The date can cause confusion because Washington's presidential term was legally set to begin on March 4, 1789. Delays in organizing Congress and counting the electoral votes meant that the actual inauguration occurred nearly two months later. John Adams had already assumed the vice presidency on April 21.