Trial Tests Courthouse's Neighbors

"We have found out about a lot of other people who are probably a lot more dangerous than Moussaoui," Harvey said. "He's not the big Kahuna anymore. He was just kind of first in line."

"I don't think folks are expecting the trial to be so bad," Harvey added. "I think there was a lot of overreaction on everyone's part."

A recent stroll through the neighborhood, however, revealed some lingering concerns.

The area around the courthouse has been transformed in recent years into a bustling commercial center, filled with new businesses and the sounds of construction equipment. Since the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and its 7,100 employees finished moving into its new complex down the street last year, traffic has become steadily worse. It can sometimes take 20 to 25 minutes to drive from the courthouse area to Old Town during rush hour, depending on the weather.

Across the street from the courthouse, a new Westin hotel and 79 condominium units are rising. Also under construction or about to start construction, city officials say, are a Marriott hotel at the intersection of Mill Road and Jamieson; two small office buildings with street-level retail space on Jamieson in front of the Patent Office; an office building with a parking garage behind the courthouse, and two condominium towers at the intersection of Mill Road and Eisenhower Avenue.

On Jamieson, Jane Mo recently opened the Cafe Gallery Market, a coffee bar and gourmet market that serves cappuccino and grilled panini. Mo said the trial has brought more business. But she said she feels "it's a little dangerous."

"You never know who is a terrorist," Mo said.

Down the street, at the PTO Coffee House, a cashier said customers were complaining on the first day of jury selection about the lack of parking in the area. "Everyone thinks it's going to be a problem," said the cashier, who declined to give her name. "People had a hard time getting down the street."

Those are the kinds of problems residents expected back in December 2001 when Moussaoui was indicted on charges of conspiring with al-Qaeda in the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

In the 1990s, most major terrorism trials had been in New York. But the Justice Department decided to bring the Moussaoui case to Alexandria, in part because Northern Virginia's jury pool is viewed as more conservative than New York's and because the Richmond-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit is considered the nation's most conservative appellate court.

The growing affinity for Alexandria soon led to a second high-profile terrorism case being brought here: the prosecution of John Walker Lindh, a Californian accused of fighting for the Taliban in Afghanistan. At one point, the city faced the prospect of both trials being scheduled to start within days of each other in the fall of 2002.

Officials increased security around the courthouse. Jersey barriers were erected around the guard booths, hydraulic traffic barriers were implanted and parking on nearby streets was nearly eliminated.