User:Rorschach/List of capitals in the United States

This is a list of federal, state, insular area, territorial, colonial, and Native American capital cities in the United States. Washington, D.C. has been the capital of the United States since 1800. Each state has its own capital, and most have not changed since the colonial era. Before the United States was founded, the capital cities of the Thirteen Colonies changed frequently. Additionally, some Native American tribes have established capital cities.

Federal capitals
The cities below served either as the meeting place for colonial American congresses or as official capitals of the United States under the United States Constitution. The United States did not have a permanent capital under the Articles of Confederation; the cities listed below under the Congress of the Confederation are those where the Congress met.

The current Constitution was ratified in 1787 and gave the Congress the power to exercise "exclusive legislation" over a district that "may, by Cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States." The 1st Congress met at Federal Hall in New York. In 1790, it passed the Residence Act, which established the national capital at a site along the Potomac River that would become Washington, D.C. For the next ten years, Philadelphia served as the temporary capital. There, Congress met at Congress Hall. On November 17, 1800, the 6th United States Congress formally convened in Washington, D.C. Congress has met outside of Washington only twice since: on July 16, 1987, at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, to commemorate the 200th anniversary of ratification of the Constitution ; and at Federal Hall in New York on September 11, 2002, to mark the first anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Both meetings were ceremonial.

State capitals
Each state has a capital that serves as the seat of its government. Ten of the thirteen original states and 15 other states have changed their capital city at least once; the last state to move its capital city was Oklahoma in 1910.

In the following table, the years listed in the "Capital Since" column represent that year that the city began serving as the state's current capital.