The Capital
Episode 3: Guided by the Stars
Episode 3 | 3m 19sVideo has Closed Captions
Andrew Ellicott and Benjamin Banneker establish the boundary stones of the new city.
President Washington enlists the talents of the best known surveyor in America, Andrew Ellicott, to help create the District of Columbia. Ellicott brings with him a brilliant mathematician, inventor, and surveyor, who also happens to be a free Black man, Benjamin Banneker. The two men work together to establish the boundary stones of the new city starting at Jones Point in Alexandria, Virginia.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
The Capital is a local public television program presented by WETA
The Capital
Episode 3: Guided by the Stars
Episode 3 | 3m 19sVideo has Closed Captions
President Washington enlists the talents of the best known surveyor in America, Andrew Ellicott, to help create the District of Columbia. Ellicott brings with him a brilliant mathematician, inventor, and surveyor, who also happens to be a free Black man, Benjamin Banneker. The two men work together to establish the boundary stones of the new city starting at Jones Point in Alexandria, Virginia.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship1791: the vision for the nation's new capital was beginning to take shape.
Pierre Charles L'Enfant, intensely loyal to President George Washington, and uncompromisingly committed to the project, was hard at work drafting the sweeping, majestic designs for the future capital.
At its heart would stand a symbolic focal point: the people's meeting place, the U.S.
Capitol.
But imagining the city was one thing.
Building it was another.
Washington and L'Enfant first had to determine where the various government buildings would physically stand and how to clear and prepare the land for these structures.
They ultimately settled on Jenkins Hill for the most important structure, the U.S.
Capitol.
It would sit on a broad rise that Washington believed was a "pedestal waiting for a monument."
As designs took shape, President Washington needed someone who could translate L'Enfant's sweeping vision into a precise reality.
He turned to the country's most respected surveyor of the era, Andrew Ellicott, a Quaker who was known for his meticulous work and scientific rigor.
Ellicott immediately accepted the challenge.
Ellicott recruited a remarkable collaborator, Benjamin Banneker.
Banneker was a free Black astronomer and mathematician who had a farm very near to Ellicott's cousin.
Banneker lacked formal education, but he possessed the critical ability to make exact astronomical calculations essential for establishing the latitude and boundaries of the new federal district.
As a Quaker, Ellicott was also eager to promote the talents of a free Black man.
Their decision to formally bring him onto the project marked a historic moment.
Banneker became the only Black man of his time to play a central role in the creation of the nation's capital.
By the end of 1791, President Washington had assembled what many considered the "dream team" behind the building of the U.S.
Capitol: Pierre Charles L'Enfant, Andrew Ellicott, and Benjamin Banneker.
Together, they shared the talent and ambition to transform the inspired vision of a "We, the people" into a vibrant, majestic city.
But the challenges ahead would test their unity and ultimately tear the team apart.
1791: the vision for the nation's new capital was beginning to take shape.
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The Capital is a local public television program presented by WETA