The District of Columbia was carved out of land given to the federal government by Virginia and Maryland. It was supposed to be a 100-square-mile diamond. Cartographers and Metro riders will notice those are not the dimensions of America’s capital city today.
The portion of the district that originally belonged to Virginia was retroceded to the commonwealth in 1847 after Alexandria voters “elected to leave D.C., feeling that they had been left out of development on the other side of the river,” according to Destination DC, a private tourism promotion organization.
Now, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), who lives in Takoma Park, a neighborhood that overlaps parts of Maryland and the district, has suggested that Congress should retrocede most of the rest of the district to Maryland.
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