Washington was inaugurated as the first President of the United States on April 30, 1789, at Federal Hall in New York, then the nation's capitol. As judges of the federal courts had not yet been appointed, the presidential oath of office was administered by Chancellor Robert Livingston, the highest judicial officer in the state of New York. Washington took the oath on the building's second floor balcony, in view of throngs of people gathered on the streets. The Bible used in the ceremony was from St. John's Lodge No.