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From "_History of the Arts of Design in America_," by William Dunlap:

Major L'Enfant was a native of France; he was employed to rebuild after
a design of his own the old New York City Hall in Wall Street, fronting
Broad Street; making therefrom the Federal Hall of that day (1789). The
new building was for the accommodation of Congress; and in the balcony
upon which the Senate Chamber opened, the first President of the United
States was inaugurated. A ceremony which I witnessed, and which for its
simplicity, the persons concerned in it, the effect produced upon my
country and the world, in giving stability to the Federal Constitution,
by calling Washington to administer its blessings, remains on my mind
unrivaled by any scene witnessed, through a long life, either in Europe
or America.

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From Dunlap's "_School History of New York_":

In 1789, I saw Washington divested of the garb of war, place his hand on
the Bible, and swear to support that Constitution under which I have
since lived happily half a century. Between the pillars of the old City
Hall, in Wall Street, as altered for the reception of the Federal
Congress, in view of thousands who filled Broad Street as far as the eye
could extend its view, and every avenue within sight of the building,
the man of the people's choice was announced to them, as the first
President of the United States of America.

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