The fence around the White House ahead of Election Day leaves visitors worried

At lunch on the eve Election daythe familiar mix of tourists, locals and government workers seeking fresh air at lunchtime milling about as usual in Lafayette Square near the White House in downtown Washington, DC

They were greeted with an unusual sight—a heavy metal fence about 10 feet high surrounded the White House, the street in front of it, and a bronze statue of former President Andrew Jackson on horseback in the center of the park.

The Secret Service’s decision to lift the fence ahead of Election Day left tourists frustrated and Americans on the lookout for the perspective of violence or unrest in the nation’s capital amid an extraordinarily close election.

“I’m disappointed,” said Rose Jones, 77, standing with her family outside the heavy perimeter. “The kids wanted to see the White House, and now they can’t.”

Jones, visiting from North Carolina, had only one day in the nation’s capital. She wasn’t the only one who arrived at the plaza surprised to find Washington’s most famous building under construction.

“I traveled a long time to come here, but it’s not open,” said Alison Carrillo, 16, in Washington for the first time with her parents, brother and grandmother.

After the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol by a crowd of supporters former President Donald Trump“It’s really understandable that they’re closing down here,” she said.

People filtered through a few openings in an outdoor fence that ran along Lafayette Square on H St NW. Tourists peered through the inner fence, unsuccessfully trying to take pictures through the tightly woven wire.

“This is not America”

For some, the fences were a bad sign ahead of the elections that were marked by threats of violence.

“You see all the fences around here and you wonder,” said Mike Longmeyer, 64, who is visiting the capital from Redlands, California.

Longmeyer said he and his wife, Teresa Longmeyer, 61, were glad to fly home on Election Day morning before “something happened.” In recent years, he said, the divisiveness around elections has “spiraled out of control,” he said.

“This is not America,” he added. “We should pass the baton to the next party and try to work together so that we can have a democracy instead of a civil war.”

It’s not just the White House bracing for Election Day chaos. Local news reported some downtown businesses with their doors and windows boarded up, and a high fence was also erected around the Naval Observatory, the official residence of Vice President Kamala Harris.

“There will be zero tolerance for violence in our city,” Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith told a news conference on Monday. “We will not tolerate the destruction of property and we will not tolerate threats to public safety and this election process.”

“I feel very sad that this is the state of things, to be honest with you,” Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser told reporters. “But the way I deal with the anxiety is to work and make sure we’re as prepared as we can be.”

Smith said the Secret Service made the decision to raise the fences around the White House and Lafayette Square Park.

Alexandria Worley, a spokeswoman for the Secret Service, said fences will also be erected around the vice president’s Naval Observatory residence and the Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, where the Trump campaign will watch the return.

“These enhancements are not in response to any specific issue, but are part of broad public safety preparations for Tuesday’s election,” Worley said in a statement.

Visitors feel “some concern” about election day security

Nicolas LaPere isn’t leaving until after the election—in fact, he came to Washington from his hometown of Paris specifically to see it.

“It’s exciting to see a city waiting for a new president,” he said. “We see it with a different vision.”

For LaPere, Washington was relaxed. But the fences around the White House suggested that could change quickly.

“Maybe there’s some concern here in town,” LaPere said. – Very strange.

On the strip of Pennsylvania Avenue that runs in front of the White House, usually open to the public, construction workers circled a multistory structure of wooden catwalks nearly as tall as the White House itself. A sign on the fence read: “Please excuse the interruption. The District of Columbia, in coordination with the National Park Service, is building the 2025 Presidential Inaugural Parade Review Stand”.

The construction of the reviewing stand is a Washington tradition that dates back to a simple canvas-covered wooden plank on which Abraham Lincoln stood in 1861 to review more than 20,000 soldiers bound for battle during the Civil War. White House Historical Association.

‘Alarming’

Other visitors took a different approach – better safe than sorry.

“It’s a good idea,” said Angel Perez, who drove an hour from Maryland to see the landmarks in Washington. “You’ve got some crazy people in there and it’s probably best to keep them all locked up.”

Still, the sight of the barricades was “alarming,” Perez, 41, said. “I had taken a picture here two years ago and it was right in front of the White House, which is pretty cool. But I’ve never seen it. it is so,” he said.

Longmeyer said the couple walked several miles around the White House perimeter for a better view before giving up.

“I came to see the White House and I think I saw a corner of it,” he said. “Taxpayers are paying for it. You can’t even see it.”

Cybele Mayes-Osterman is a breaking news reporter for USA Today. Contact her by email at [email protected]. Follow X @CybeleMO.