Despite being the capital, The Valley is a relatively small town, reflecting the island's overall low population density. It serves as the administrative, commercial, and governmental center, housing most essential services.
On August 24, 1814, during the War of 1812, British troops marched into Washington D.C. and set fire to the Capitol, the White House, and other government buildings — the only time since the Revolutionary War that a foreign power has captured and occupied the U.S. capital. According to legend, a sudden violent storm with a possible tornado helped extinguish the fires and forced the British to retreat.
Despite having a larger population than Wyoming or Vermont, the 700,000+ residents of Washington D.C. have no voting representation in the U.S. Senate and only a non-voting delegate in the House of Representatives. This situation — often summarized as 'taxation without representation,' the same phrase used by colonists before the American Revolution — is still printed on D.C. license plates today.
George Washington voluntarily stepped down after two terms as president in 1797, even though he could have served for life. This set a powerful unwritten precedent that every subsequent president followed for 150 years — until Franklin D. Roosevelt broke it by winning a third term in 1940. Congress formally codified Washington's tradition in 1951 with the 22nd Amendment, which limits presidents to two terms.
At the time of his death in 1799, George Washington enslaved 317 people at Mount Vernon. He had moral reservations about slavery — as shown in his will, which provided for the emancipation of his enslaved workers after Martha's death — but he never publicly advocated for abolition and profited enormously from enslaved labor throughout his life. Martha Washington freed the enslaved people in 1801, a year after George's death.
