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ELLICOTT, Andrew / L’Enfant, Pierre/ SYMONDS, H. D. & RIDGEWAY, J. (publishers)/ RUSSELL, J. (engraver). [London: 1792 [1795]] Plan of the City of Washington in the Territory of Columbia, ceded by the States of Virginia and Maryland to the United States of America, and by them established as the Seat of their Government, after the Year 1800. 15 ½ x 20 ½ inches. Part of right margin extended but no loss of engraved surface, short mended split at right, slight fold wear, else excellent condition. A finely engraved, scarce, early English edition of Andrew Ellicott's 1792 official plan of Washington, DC. In 1789, discussions began regarding a new federal capital city for the young United States. However, any decision on the capital was put on hold until July 1790 when Congress passed the Residence Act, providing for a national capital and a permanent seat of government at a site along the Potomac River and empowering President Washington to appoint commissioners to oversee the project. On January 24, 1791, Washington announced the Congressionally-designated, permanent location of the national capital; it would be a diamond-shaped ten-mile tract at the confluence of the Potomac and Eastern Branch Rivers. The original survey of the 100-square-mile diamond "district" was then undertaken by Andrew Ellicott and Benjamin Banneker (a free slave). In March of 1791, Major Pierre Charles L'Enfant was appointed by Washington to prepare a plan for the city itself with Ellicott as his assistant. L'Enfant turned out to be very difficult to work with, and frustrated with L'Enfant's obstinacy, both Washington and Jefferson approved his suspension in 1792 and outright termination in 1793. Ellicott took over the project using L'Enfant’s plan as the basis for his design. In 1792 Ellicott issued his official plan for the city with the understanding that at or around the year 1800 the new capital city would be completed, which turned out to be highly optimistic. This English produced plan of the city is based directly on Ellicott's map of 1792 and appeared in An American Atlas, published in London by H.D. Symonds & J. Ridgeway. Phillips "Washington" PW #33; Ristow, "American Maps," p. 153; Verner, 13.
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