Same shall be, for
the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other
needful Buildings;--And

The Seat of Government

The jurisdiction of the United States over the District of Columbia
vested on the first Monday of December, 1800.[1334] By the act of
February 27, 1801,[1335] the District was divided into two counties and
in the following year the city of Washington was erected into a
municipality.[1336] The present form of government dates from 1876; all
legislative powers with respect to District affairs are retained by
Congress, while an executive board of three commissioners vested with
ordinance powers is appointed by the President.[1337] As a municipal
corporation, the District has the legal capacity to sue and be
sued.[1338] But the District Commissioners are merely administrative
officers, having only the ministerial powers given them by statute;
accordingly they were found to have no power to submit a claim against
the District to arbitration.[1339]

NATURE AND EXTENT OF RIGHTS CEDED TO UNITED STATES

In ceding the territory which became the District of Columbia, both
Maryland and Virginia provided that the United States should not acquire
any right of property in the soil except by transfer by the individual
owner. This proviso was held not to prevent the Federal Government from
exercising the power of eminent domain within the District.[1340] Under
the agreement made between the original proprietors of the land on which
the city of Washington was laid out, and the Commissioners appointed by
the President to survey, define and locate the district for the seat of
government, the United States became the owner in fee of the streets of
the city although the trustees never carried out their agreement to
convey them.[1341] Both the right of dominion and of property of
navigable waters and of the soil under them in the District, which
originally had been granted by Charles I, King of England to the Lord
Proprietary of Maryland, and to which Maryland succeeded upon the
American Revolution, became vested in the United States by the cession
from Maryland.[1342]

RETROCESSION OF ALEXANDRIA COUNTY

Originally the District of Columbia embraced the maximum area permitted
by the Constitution. In 1846, however, Congress authorized a referendum
on the question of retroceding Alexandria County to Virginia, and
declared that jurisdiction should be relinquished to that State if a
majority of the vot