New York City was the first U.S. capital under the Constitution, a city featured in America250 history.
The federal government began operating under the Constitution in New York City in 1789. George Washington was inaugurated there as the first president of the United States, and Congress met in Federal Hall on Wall Street.
The national capital later moved to Philadelphia in 1790 and then to Washington, D.C., in 1800. These changes explain why several cities appear in accounts of the early republic and in anniversary programs connected with the nation’s founding.
New York City was not the location where the Declaration of Independence was adopted; that was Philadelphia. The question concerns the first capital under the Constitution, a later constitutional-government milestone rather than the Revolutionary Congress’s meeting place.