New York City was the first capital of the United States under the Constitution, before America250 commemorates the nation’s founding.
The Confederation Congress made New York City the national capital in January 1785. After the Constitution created the new federal government, the city continued as its first capital. The First Congress convened there in 1789, and George Washington was inaugurated at Federal Hall on Wall Street.
New York’s constitutional capital period was brief. At the end of 1790, the national capital moved to Philadelphia, where the government remained while the permanent capital on the Potomac River was being developed. Washington, D.C., became the capital in 1800.
A common mix-up is treating Philadelphia as the first constitutional capital because the Constitutional Convention met there and the Declaration of Independence was adopted there. Philadelphia was an important revolutionary and early federal center, but New York City held the distinction of being the first capital under the Constitution.