Why is it Called the District of Columbia?

Why is the United States capital in the District of Columbia, and how did the district get its name?

On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress passed the Residence Act which gave power to President George Washington to select a spot for the new country’s permanent capital. Prior to this time, the capital had been in various other locations such as New York, Philadelphia, two other locations in Pennsylvania, Annapolis, Maryland, and Princeton, New Jersey, before it became the capital in the District of Columbia. But what was the District of Columbia, and how did it get established?

The Residence Act allowed Washington to find a location on the Potomac River. It also gave him the power to appoint three commissioners to develop the land into what would be the permanent capital of the United States. Philadelphia was again selected as a temporary capital while development finished on a one-hundred-square-mile tract of land that had been ceded from Maryland and Virginia. Philadelphia remained the last temporary capital until 1800.

In 1791, the commissioners named the city after Washington and said that it would lie in the Territory of Columbia. The name “Columbia” was a female personification of “Columbus.” It was a term that was used to refer to the original thirteen colonies and the entirety of the United States up to…