On May 7, 1852, the General Assembly passed an act amending Alexandria’s charter, repealing the congressional charters of 1804, 1826, and 1843 from the town’s years in the District of Columbia and declaring that it would henceforth be known as the City of Alexandria, divided into northern and southern districts along a line midway between King and Prince Streets. Section 22 extended the corporate limits one block north, 419 feet 2 inches beyond the old Montgomery Street line, to take in the Alexandria Canal; the western boundary did not move, though the council gained police and sanitary authority over the ground beyond it as far as Hooff’s Run. The act took effect upon ratification by the city’s voters at a poll held August 4, 1852.