The crowds at 14th and U streets, Northwest. Photo by Flickr user Alex Barth
Last night marked an historic moment in US history—an African-American won the presidency. Though Barack Obama will officially take office at the end of January, Washingtonians started the celebration en masse last night.
Obama won easily in Maryland and the District, where he secured 61- and 93-percent of the vote, respectively. But Virginia remained “too close to call” for several hours. Just after 11 PM, with West Coast polls showing clear Obama wins in California, Washington, and Oregon, CNN and other networks felt comfortable declaring Obama the president-elect. Minutes later, Virigina’s results were finally decided—Obama eked by with 52-percent of the vote.
The streets of Washington erupted. We were driving back to the city from a watch-party in Virginia around 11:30 and were greeted by good-natured honks of car horns and pockets of boisterous young people headed, we quickly realized, to the White House.
Crowds formed all over the city. A friend in Northeast said that he saw fireworks. From P Street, Northwest, we heard the cheers of the crowd on U Street, five blocks away.
Were you part of the celebration last night? What was going on in Virginia and Maryland? We want to hear your stories and see your photos! Leave us your version of the events in the comments, and send photos to eleaman@washingtonian.com. We’ll start a slideshow to document our readers’ perspective of last night’s historic occasion.
See also: Tell Barack Obama where he should dine when he arrives in Washington.
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