The postcards sold on the curbsides along with the hot dogs and fat pencils and inaugural dishes are, as they have been forever, of presidents and monuments and domes and cherry blossoms.
In the nation’s capital, there are no postcards of the burning Pentagon. No smoke-filled booklets for sale. No photo albums.
Washington isn’t New York. You already know that. But as in New York, people are coming back.
“We’re riding the crest of a patriotic wave,” said Bill Hanbury, president of the Washington, D.C. Convention and Tourism Corp.
It’s not that everything here is exactly as it was. It isn’t.
“Business used to be better,” said the man on Pennsylvania Avenue who has been photographing visitors alongside cardboard presidential cutouts since the Reagan administration.
“But nothing’s the same.”
The perimeter around the Washington Monument is defined by concrete barriers. Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House has been off-limits to unauthorized vehicles for seven years, since Oklahoma City, but now E Street, behind the mansion, is blocked as well.
At the Smithsonian’s super-popular Air and Space Museum, visitors must pass through metal detectors, and bags are searched.
At the Capitol, symbol of this democracy of, by and for the people, the people can no longer just walk in and look around. It’s been that way since two Capitol policemen were slain by an American gunman in 1998, but access is even tighter now.
Still, the people have made their statement.
“The American public has come back here in a big way,” said Hanbury.
“We happen to be the stewards, the caretakers of many of our most important symbols and institutions that reflect our democracy and freedom, and American families have come back here to celebrate that democracy and freedom.”
Hotel occupancy is near what it was, and sometimes better. One week in April, despite a major falloff in visitation by school groups, the town was practically sold out. (Low room rates, the result of high inventories created by the groups’ cancellations, certainly helped.) Last spring’s Cherry Blossom Festival drew nearly 1 million visitors, 300,000 more than in 2001.
The week after Sept. 11, 2001, hotel occupancy fell to 25.6 percent. In the week after Sept. 11, 2002, it was 78.4 percent.
Restaurant numbers are good. At museums and other attractions, visitation is approaching normalcy.
To be sure, Washington is cushioned from some of the impact that goes with economic slowdowns. This is a government town, and the business of government goes on even during recessions.
Leisure travel is a different animal, but Washington is a unique destination.
“American families have always come here to take their kind of `Mecca’ trip,” said Hanbury, “and they’re continuing to do it. These families have suffered through an abysmal year historically, and they want to connect with the country.
“The capital is a special place right now.”
Agreed one policeman near the White House: “It’s back to normal tourism in D.C. If it’s not up to full normal, it’s pretty close.”
The same, but different
It didn’t happen all at once.
Tourism and business travel to Washington were crippled when Reagan National Airport was closed for eight weeks after the attacks.
“I mean,” said Hanbury, “how could we say the nation’s capital was open for business when our airport was slammed shut? Can you imagine shutting down O’Hare for eight weeks?
“That, and the anthrax scare and the deaths, and the continual pronouncements from our senior federal officials about national alerts–that did not help us. People were just not coming here while all this rhetoric was in play.”
As the rhetoric eased, so did resistance.
Nonetheless, visitors today see a somewhat different Washington.
Barriers. Jersey barriers, they’re called; Chicago has them around some downtown buildings. You’ve seen them on highways under repair.
Though almost every attraction is open, these portable blockades are all over the place in Washington.
The barriers line the areas near the White House, where tours, once available to anyone with the patience to wait in line, are now closed to all but school groups and some military and veterans’ groups. Advance application required.
“Some people are nice about it,” said a guard who has to deliver this bit of bad news. “And some people are jerks.”
In mid-September, jersey barriers protecting the Air and Space Museum were replaced by flower-filled planters.
They’re prettier.
“That’s what everyone says,” said a guard. “Less expensive too. The museum bought these. They were renting those.”
The jersey barriers block the driveway in front of the Lincoln Memorial, forcing tour buses to drop off customers a block away. The memorial itself remains open, with limitations.
“You used to be able to walk around the entire structure,” said a National Park Service ranger. “There are still security concerns. We hope to open that soon.”
The barriers by the Washington Monument were put there during the restoration project that was completed in February. They were supposed to be removed. Not now.
The barriers bug everybody, but especially people whose job it is to sell tourists on coming here.
“We’ve got to do a better job of making the capital more welcoming,” said Hanbury.
The somewhat-curtailed access, too, is troubling.
“The family with children from Peoria or the couple who bring their family here from Biloxi–you gotta let ’em go see these extraordinary national treasures. We all own ’em.”
Closed to all tours is the Pentagon.
Some visitors nonetheless make their way to a hillside with a view of the area where the plane struck, but those pilgrimages–by visitors and locals–are nothing like the scene at the World Trade Center site.
An island apart
Even among Washingtonians, the Pentagon was an island apart, its own insular family, a workplace for the military establishment. Only seven of the nearly 200 victims of that attack lived in the District; the personal connection–the “everyone knew someone” reality that affected all of New York–isn’t here.
There are no “burning Pentagon” postcards, Hanbury said, because 200 years of events have made Washington shock-resistant.
“We’re used to the burden and responsibility of being the nation’s capital,” he said.
“This is a city that has an extraordinary history of crises, from literally burning the White House down through the Civil War–Union and Confederate armies were fighting on the perimeter of Washington–to the second World War and the death of presidents.”
Yet, even here . . .
“When we were kids,” said a Washington policeman who grew up in New York, “we’d take the train to Lower Manhattan and go up to the towers, six of us, and we’d talk about what we were gonna be.
“Four of us were gonna be cops. I was gonna be a cop.”
Today, he guards the White House.
Over the last 12 months, he’s been back home a lot . . .
IF YOU GO
GETTING THERE
United and American Airlines offer frequent non-stop service throughout the day between O’Hare and Washington’s Reagan National Airport. Recent quotes put fares at less than $180 (subject to change and restrictions). ATA has non-stops out of Midway (recent quote: $276); other airlines (including Northwest and Continental) offer one-stop flights out of both airports at competitive prices. American and United also have flights from O’Hare to the less-convenient Dulles International Airport.
STAYING THERE
As in New York, Washington hotels are notoriously high-priced but, these days are feeling the pressure of the economic reality. Check the Web sites (including www.washington.org and the hotel sites) for promotional rates. Rooms can be especially tight when Congress is in session and when conventions hit town, so book ahead. Tip: Weekend prices can be true bargains, even at prime properties.
VISITING KEY SITES
Most Washington attractions are operating normally (though a couple, notably the National Archives, are closed for renovation). Exceptions are the White House (202-456-7041; www.whitehouse.gov) and the Capitol (202-225-6827; www.aoc.gov), where visitation is restricted; and the Pentagon, now closed to tours. Tickets are required to enter the Washington Monument, available onsite (free, but get there early) or in advance ($1.50); 800-967-2283; www.nps.gov.
INFORMATION
Call the Washington, D.C. Convention and Tourism Corp. at 202-789-7000, or check the Web at www.washington.org.
— Alan Solomon
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E-mail Alan Solomon: alsolly@aol.com
