The U.S. Congress is returning to its roots. Next month both houses will convene on Wall Street to mark the anniversary of the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center. The site: Federal Hall, at the northeast corner of Wall and Broad Streets, where the first U.S. Congress met after the Constitution was ratified in 1788 and where George Washington was inaugurated as the republic’s first president in 1789. The special joint session is tentatively set for September 6, says John Feehery, a spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert. “We’re coming at the invitation of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg,” says Feehery. “Members feel very strongly that we should commemorate the events of September 11 and pay tribute to those who lost their lives.” The session will mark the first time Federal Hall has hosted a congressional session since the nation’s capital moved from New York to Philadelphia in 1790.
