At twelve o'clock October 12, 1792, the corner-stone of the President's House was laid, but there is no record of any ceremony. There is, however, a long account in the newspapers of the laying of the corner-stone of the Capitol, which was personally performed by George Washington in his capacity as a Mason, on September 18, 1792, "amid a brilliant crowd of spectators of both sexes." Right at the head of the procession, immediately following "the Surveying Department of the City of Washington," is noted "The Mayor and Corporation of George Town." John Threlkeld was Mayor that year, and certainly that "brilliant crowd" must have been largely composed of Georgetonians for the dwellers in the City of Washington at that time were few and far between. Witness General Washington's letter on the 17th of May, 1795, to Alexander White, one of the Commissioners: "I shall intimate that a residence in the City if a house is to be had, will be more promotive of its welfare than your abode in George Town." He was nursing along his namesake in every possible way. On February 8, 1798, he notes in his diary: "Visited Public Buildings in the morning." The day before, the 7th, he speaks of going to a meeting of the Potomac Company, dining with Colonel Fitzgerald, and lodging with Thomas Peter at Number 2618 K Street. This was only natural, as Mrs. Peter was, of course, his step-granddaughter. On that same trip he met the Commissioners again, this time at Union Tavern, and dined there. On August 5th his diary says: "Went to George Town to a general meeting of the Potomac Company. Dined at the Union Tavern and lodged at Mr. Law's." Thomas Law, an Englishman, had married Eliza Custis, Mrs. Washington's eldest grandchild, and had a home on Capitol Hill. On August 11th he again spent the night at Thomas Peter's home, and that was the last night he ever spent in the city named in his honor. He was never to live to see the government established in the city over which he had worked so hard, and in which he had such absolute implicit faith. "A century hence," he wrote, "if this country keeps united, it will produce a city, though not so large as London, yet of a magnitude inferior to few other in Europe." Chapter VI _Below Bridge Street_ Nearly all of the business, and most of the social life, up until 1800 took place below Bridge (M) Street. The island in the river below George Town, which was called, variously, Analostan, Mason's Island, My Lord's Island, and Barbadoes, was almost a part of George Town in those days. It belonged to the great plantation of George Mason, of Gunston, the brilliant statesman and author of the Bill of Rights.