[net.nlang] Goodbye, Columbus

sra@oddjob.UUCP (Scott R. Anderson) (04/04/85)

>> ... and now Columbus is stuck
>> with a city in Ohio and a South American country! (:-)
>Hey, don't forget the US federal district and a whole province of Canada!

There is also a river, and there was almost a state, too.  When the Oregon
Territory was being broken up into states, they were going to name one of
them 'Columbia' after the river, a major geographic feature in the region.
But Congress was concerned that it would be confused with the *District*
of Columbia, which at that time was commonly referred to as Columbia.
So what did they name it?  Washington...

Residents of the District still speak of 'DC', rather than 'Washington',
like the rest of the country.

				Scott Anderson
				ihnp4!oddjob!kaos