Added Precautions to Bring Fourth Security
Measures for Celebration to Include Closed Metro Station, Blocked Roads, Searches at Checkpoints
By David A. Fahrenthold
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 30, 2002; Page C01
Security for this year's Fourth of July festivities on the Mall will be tighter than ever, with a double line of fences enclosing an area that stretches from the U.S. Capitol grounds to the Potomac River, authorities said.
Police will funnel the crowds through 24 checkpoints, search coolers and bags for items that are deemed unsafe or threatening and, occasionally, use metal-detecting wands to scan visitors.
In recent weeks, the FBI has urged federal and local law enforcement officials to be especially vigilant for the holiday, warning of a greater risk of terrorist attack. Regional FBI and counterterrorism officials have discussed plans on how to respond to an attack.
In the wake of Sept. 11 and such warnings about other possible attacks, authorities said they want to make certain that the annual celebration, one of the nation's largest patriotic outpourings, will be held with a minimum of hassle and a maximum of safety.
Hundreds of thousands of people are expected on the Mall for a day of capital traditions, including a parade on Constitution Avenue NW starting at 11:45 a.m., a concert by the National Symphony Orchestra on the grounds of the Capitol at 8 p.m. and the famous fireworks display at 9:10 p.m.
As authorities finalized security arrangements for the holiday, they stressed that the annual Independence Day celebration will not be impeded by added precautions.
"We want to get the word out that the Mall is open," said Sgt. Scott Fear, a U.S. Park Police spokesman.
Nevertheless, new safeguards will be visible on the Mall, at Metro stations and on the Potomac, usually clogged for the day with boats.
On land, more than 2,000 police officers from area jurisdictions will be on duty. On water, a 200-foot-wide buffer zone on the Potomac will be off-limits to boaters.
The Mall will be swept by officers with dogs before the crowds arrive. The U.S. Coast Guard will help keep boats well off the riverbank on the District side of the Potomac. And as people pass through checkpoints en route to festivities, some will be screened by Park Police and U.S. Capitol Police wielding hand-held magnetic wands.
Fear said most of those entering the Mall will not be scanned, but he declined to say when police will use the wands.
"People in shorts and T-shirts, we're just going to wave right on through," he said.
Someone wearing a heavy coat in the heat would arouse suspicion, said U.S. Capitol Police Chief Terrance W. Gainer.
Police will inspect bags, backpacks and especially coolers.
Bill Line, a spokesman for the Park Service, reminded visitors that bringing glass containers or grills to the Mall is prohibited.
The Mall will be surrounded by two lines of snow fencing, with Third, Seventh and 14th streets dividing it into four secure perimeters, according to the National Park Service. Those streets, as well as Ninth and 12th streets in the secured area, will be open to cross-Mall traffic, after District officials argued against closing them for the day.
However, 15th, 17th and 23rd streets in the Mall area will be closed to traffic.
The two dozen entry points will be located around the perimeters, which will stretch from the foot of the Capitol grounds west to the Potomac and the western end of the Memorial Bridge.
Fear said an unprecedented number of officers will patrol the Mall, including police on foot, horseback and motorcycles. Sixteen police agencies have agreed to help Park Police with security, he said.
On the Potomac, the Coast Guard and the D.C. police Harbor Patrol will set up a zone, marked by buoys 200 feet from the District, where recreational boaters will not be allowed. The zone will stretch from the Memorial Bridge to the 14th Street bridge, the Coast Guard said.
Another Coast Guard advisory, put out this month, warns boaters not to anchor or stop beneath bridges.
Park Service officials advise people to take Metro to the festivities. But Metro announced this month that it will shut down its Smithsonian Station – typically jammed on July Fourth – because it has an exit in the Mall's security perimeter.
Metro Transit Police will patrol the closed station, according to Transit Police Chief Polly L. Hanson. Nearby stations on various lines will remain open.
Hanson said Transit Police are taking other measures for the holiday, including ordering officers to wear orange vests for better visibility. In addition, she said, many plainclothes officers will patrol the entire Metro system.
For that day only, riders will not be allowed to bring bikes or large coolers on trains.
Fifty bomb-resistant trash cans – ordered when the system's other trash cans were removed after Sept. 11 – will be installed in stations next week, Hanson said.
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
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