New York City served as the first U.S. national capital under the Constitution.
The new federal government began operating in New York City in 1789. George Washington was inaugurated there as the first president on April 30, 1789, at Federal Hall on Wall Street. Congress and the first federal courts also operated in the city during this opening period of constitutional government.
The capital later moved to Philadelphia in 1790 under a political compromise connected with the location of a permanent federal district. In 1800, the government moved to Washington, D.C., which has remained the national capital ever since. New York City’s role was therefore important but temporary.
Philadelphia is often selected incorrectly because the Continental Congress met there and the Declaration of Independence was adopted at Independence Hall. Washington, D.C., is the modern capital, but it did not yet exist as the seat of the federal government in 1789. This distinction helps separate revolutionary-era Philadelphia from the first constitutional capital.