The White House and Republicans who control the Senate have already voiced their opposition to the measure to grant statehood to Washington, D.C., making the House vote largely symbolic.

WASHINGTON, June 26 -- The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday approved a legislation granting statehood to Washington, D.C. for the first time on Capitol Hill after it was created more than 200 years ago.

The bill was passed on a highly partisan vote of 232-180 in the Democrats-led House.

Collin Peterson from midwest state Minnesota was the only Democrat to vote against the bill. All House Republicans opposed it and independent lawmaker Justin Amash of Michigan also voted no.

The White House and Republicans who control the Senate have already voiced their opposition to the measure, making the House vote largely symbolic.

Photo taken on on May 15, 2020 shows the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., the United States.(Xinhua/Liu Jie)

Introduced by D.C.'s nonvoting House member Eleanor Holmes Norton, the bill would shrink the country's capital city to a small area encompassing the White House, Capitol buildings, Supreme Court, and other federal buildings along the National Mall.

The rest of the city would become the 51st U.S. state, named the Washington, Douglass Commonwealth after abolitionist Frederick Douglass, according to the bill.

With the statehood, the bill would grant D.C. two senators and make the existing sole House representative a voting member.

However, it is unlikely to gain traction in the Senate while President Donald Trump has said he would veto the bill if it came to his desk.