Office workers and tourists were suddenly herded out of federal buildings and monuments yesterday, as bomb scares and other undisclosed threats shook an already rattled city. Further delaying the capital's recovery, officials said Reagan National Airport will remain closed indefinitely.
By evening, as the Capitol was temporarily evacuated, busy commuter roads around the White House were abruptly closed -- sending thousands of cars toward the few open streets and certain gridlock.
An area around the White House was cordoned off by the Secret Service about 3 p.m. yesterday, from 15th to 17th streets and from E to H streets, said Secret Service spokesman Jim Mackin. He said the streets would remain closed today, at least through the morning commute.
Three days after Tuesday's terrorist attacks, Washington is a nervous place of warnings, scares and sudden shutdowns. "Credible threat" is part of a new way of life, where fear and disruption ricochet from one corner of the city to another. Leaders have made steely pledges of a return to "business as usual" in the United States, but in the nation's capital, nothing feels normal.
It did not matter whether the threats were reported by intelligence sources or came from unstable callers at the end of a pay phone, all were taken seriously.
In the morning, telephone calls to an American University dorm sent 10,000 rushing from campus. Rescue workers were briefly pulled out of the Pentagon during the morning because of a "non-specific threat about a bomb," a spokesman said. At midday, the Secret Service closed the Corcoran Gallery of Art without explanation. A bomb threat at about 5:40 p.m. interrupted a Senate vote and security briefings for House members.
The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority announced in a statement that National Airport will remain closed "for the time being." An authority spokesman said it could reopen next week, but a senior federal official said that decision wouldn't be the authority's alone.
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) said that National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said National could be the last airport in the country to reopen. Federal security and defense agencies cite the threat posed to the White House, Capitol and Pentagon, which lie virtually in the direct flight path for planes landing from west of the airport, which is in Arlington on the western shore of the Potomac River.
Dulles International Airport was slowly reviving last night when two Northwest Airlines flights were canceled by what officials, without elaborating, described as "external threats." No more flights left the airport.
All day, police in riot gear and National Guard members in fatigues appeared without warning in unexpected places, offering little explanation aside from the suggestion of danger.
"I decided it would be better to be safe than sorry," Corcoran Gallery President David C. Levy said, explaining why he sent 500 visitors out the doors about 3:30 p.m. at the request of the Secret Service. As he weighed the decision, Levy said, he tried to get information from the White House and D.C. police but was told nothing.
"There was nothing on the radio," he said. "There was nobody telling us anything from the government. We really didn't know what was going on."
Throughout town, military actions seemed to follow scripts not shared with the population.
A lobbyist got a call from her Secret Service agent husband at lunchtime to tell her about a "very credible threat" that the White House was going to be attacked. Her 15th Street NW office emptied.
In the afternoon, U.S. Park Police at the Lincoln Memorial told tourists to leave the structure and the surrounding area. They would not say why. Within 10 minutes, the memorial and the grassy area at the end of the Reflecting Pool were virtually abandoned, except for Park Police on foot, horseback and motorcycle. Police also ringed nearby trees with yellow tape and, without explanation, directed joggers, cyclists and passersby to leave. The skies echoed with the sound of low-flying helicopters.
Don Smith shuttered the POW booth where he works. "They said we've got to clear the whole area," he said. "I think this is a sign of the times to come for a while."
By 4 p.m., all monuments and memorials around the Mall were closed by Park Police, who curtly offered "heightened security" when pressed for a reason.
At the intersection of Route 50 and the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, D.C. police stopped trucks and tankers trying to enter the District and inspected the vehicles. Sgt. Joe Gentile, a police spokesman, said the practice would continue indefinitely.
Cars trying to park in the underground garage at the Ronald Reagan Building on 14th Street yesterday morning were searched one-by-one, backing up traffic onto the 14th Street bridge and into Virginia.
"People are used to just flying through the gate, but that's not gonna happen anymore," said Connie Niebuhr, of the traffic information company SmarTraveler, who watched the snarl on a traffic camera.
Menace, in the form of alarms and evacuations, floated through a downtown branch of Riggs Bank, a Tysons Corner office of the Central Intelligence Agency and the floor of Congress.
At the Capitol, the evacuation was announced by a fire alarm about 5:30 p.m., followed by U.S. Capitol Police banging on doors throughout the complex, sending the nation's lawmakers and their aides streaming down the marble steps.
A congressional office received the threat, said Lt. Dan Nichols, of the Capitol Police. During a subsequent search of the building with bomb-sniffing dogs, two dogs "indicated" in an area of the building on the Senate side.
No bomb was found, and lawmakers and their staffs were allowed back inside about 6:30. Most didn't question the evacuation. "They say leave, we leave," said Stacey Hughes, a staff member in the office of Sen. Don Nickles (R-Okla.)
"It's changing the psychology of Americans," said Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.), one of many members who stood on the grass and talked about the lasting implications of Tuesday's attack.
Some wondered whether they should be there in the first place. "Everybody's really scared right now," said elevator operator Marcia Owens, 29. "We shouldn't be here until everything cools down for a while."
Alan Etter, spokesman for D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services, said crews had been responding to bomb threats throughout the District yesterday. "It can use up your resources, having to respond to all these calls," he said.
All of yesterday's threats proved false.
"Every crazy is coming out of the woodwork this week," Levy said. "It's an inconvenience, but we have to keep public safety in mind."
