No time was lost in establishing definite boundaries for the new district, and on March 30, 1791, President Washington issued a proclamation declaring
"that the whole of the said territory shall be located and included within the four lines following, that is to say:
"Beginning at Jones's Point, being the upper cape of Hunting Creek, in Virginia, and at an angle in the outset of 45 degrees west of the north, and running in a direct line 10 miles for the first line; then beginning again at the same Jones's Point and running another direct line at a right angle with the first across the Potomac 10 miles for the second line; then from the termination of the said first and second lines running two other direct lines of 10 miles each, the one crossing the Eastern Branch aforesaid and the other the Potomac, and meeting each other in a point.
"… and the territory so to be located, defined, and limited shall be the whole territory accepted by the said acts of Congress as the district for the permanent seat of the Government of the United States."[25] ]
The cornerstone was set at Jones Point, on the bank of the Potomac below Alexandria, on April 15, 1791. Many of the original stones, set at intervals of one mile along the boundary, are still in place though badly showing the effects of time.[26] ] The stone referred to earlier—at the northwest corner of present Arlington County—is chipped and almost overgrown by the great oak tree near which it was placed. A small tract surround this stone has been set aside as a public park, jointly owned by the City of Falls Church and the counties of Arlington and Fairfax.
It is interesting that the Acts of Congress setting up the District of Columbia should have specified that no public buildings were to be erected on the Virginia side of the Potomac.[27] ] The Act of 1790 empowered the commissioners to buy or accept the gift of land for the site of public buildings only on the eastern side of the Potomac. The Act of 1791 made this limitation more explicit:
"… nothing herein contained, shall authorize the erection of public buildings otherwise than on the Maryland side of the river Potomac."
It is curious that this should have been so since the General Assembly of Virginia in 1789 followed its Act ceding territory for the formation of a Federal District by a joint resolution promising to appropriate not less than $120,000 (a considerable sum in those days) for public buildings in this territory if Maryland would put up an amount not less than three-fifths as much. The fact that there were no Federal office buildings on the Virginia side of the Potomac was used as an argument for the retrocession of this area in mid-19th Century.
The compromise which had resulted in the selection of the Potomac as the site of the Federal District included an agreement that the seat of the Government should be in Philadelphia for a period of ten years. Accordingly, it was not until 1800 that the Congress and Government offices were moved to the City of Washington in the District of Columbia.
Almost from the beginning there was dissatisfaction among the inhabitants of Alexandria County at being part of the District of Columbia. This sentiment crystallized in 1846 when the General Assembly adopted an Act[28] ] expressing the willingness of Virginia to accept the territory should the Congress re-cede it. A petition was presented to the Congress by the residents requesting that this be done. The petition was referred to the Committee on the District which reported: