George Washington was inaugurated as the first U.S. president in New York City in 1789.
The ceremony took place on April 30, 1789, at Federal Hall on Wall Street. New York was then the nation’s capital, and the building also hosted the first United States Congress under the new Constitution.
Washington took the presidential oath on Federal Hall’s second-floor balcony before a large public crowd. Robert R. Livingston, New York’s chancellor, administered the oath because the federal judiciary had not yet been organized.
The capital later moved to Philadelphia in 1790 and eventually to Washington, D.C., in 1800. This means Washington, D.C., was not the location of the first presidential inauguration, despite being the permanent national capital today. The 1789 event marked the practical beginning of the presidency created by the Constitution, making it an important milestone in the early national history commemorated during America250.