New York City was the first U.S. capital under the Constitution and the site of George Washington's first inauguration.
The new federal government began in New York City in 1789. Washington took the presidential oath on April 30 at Federal Hall, a building on Wall Street that had served as the meeting place of the First Congress.
The capital later moved to Philadelphia in 1790 under a political compromise connected with federal assumption of state debts. Philadelphia remained the temporary capital until 1800, when the government moved to the newly established Washington, D.C.
This sequence is different from the earlier capitals used by the Continental Congress and Congress under the Articles of Confederation. New York City therefore holds a specific constitutional-era distinction: it was the first capital of the federal government created by the Constitution, not the nation's only early seat of government.