National Mall Now Closed Through Inauguration Day Amid Security Fears - Forbes

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Topline

The National Mall, which typically houses throngs of crowds on Inauguration Day, is now largely closed until after President-elect Joe Biden is sworn into office, the National Parks Service confirmed Friday, which will further block protesters from getting near the U.S. Capitol building amid fears of a potential attack during the inauguration.

Key Facts

“Core areas” of the National Mall—which spans from the U.S. Capitol building to the Lincoln Memorial, with the Washington Monument in between—closed at 11 a.m. Friday and will be shuttered through “at least” Jan. 21, one day after Inauguration Day.

“Permitted First Amendment activities” will be allowed in a few designated areas at the U.S. Navy Memorial and John Marshall Park, which are both near but not in the immediate vicinity of the Capitol building.

Demonstrations in those locations will require a permit, and attendees will be screened before entering the areas and escorted to the protest locations.

The closure will also include the area around the White House, including Lafayette Park.

The National Parks Service had already shut down the Washington Monument through Inauguration Day due to “credible threats” of violence, and a “non-scalable” security fence has been erected around the U.S. Capitol building.

Biden will be inaugurated on the steps of the Capitol building that overlook the National Mall, as past presidents have since 1981.

Key Background

Biden’s inauguration has been marred by credible threats of a potential attack in the wake of President Donald Trump’s supporters violently storming the U.S. Capitol building last week. Washington D.C. has responded by radically altering its operations during what’s typically one of the city’s most celebratory times, with AirBnB completely canceling all reservations, public transportation stations shutting down near the Capitol building and the city declaring a state of emergency. The move to close the National Mall is part of a wide scale security effort to protect the inauguration that will also see an expected 20,000 National Guard troops deployed to Washington for the event. Biden has cancelled his plans to take Amtrak to the swearing-in ceremony, though the U.S. Secret Service special agent in charge of the inauguration’s security has expressed confidence the event itself will be secure.