Not only have they made it necessary to militarize DC like some third world backwater of a capital, but they’ve stolen the American people’s privilege of attending the ceremonies firsthand, or for some even crossing a bridge to go to work. From WaPo...

Virginia will shut down four major bridges leading into downtown Washington ahead of Wednesday’s presidential inauguration, just one of the extraordinary measures announced Friday as the heavy safety cordon around the nation’s capital tightened.

The heightened security measures — which will include shuttering the National Mall for nearly a week and an estimated 25,000 National Guard troops — conjured a stark image for Inauguration Day: a celebration of democracy mostly devoid of citizens.

As part of an agreement with the Secret Service, Virginia announced that the Virginia State Police will shut down the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge, Arlington Memorial Bridge, Interstate 395 Bridge and 14th Street Bridge to vehicular and pedestrian traffic from Tuesday at 6 a.m. to Thursday at 6 a.m.

Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, and members of Virginia’s congressional delegation — including Democratic Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, as well as Reps. Don Beyer, D-8th, Gerald Connolly, D-11th, and Jennifer Wexton, D-10th — said the bridge closures were intended to ensure that the transfer of power will be “as peaceful as possible.”

“The 2021 Presidential Inauguration Ceremony will see the strongest Capital-area security response in history,” they wrote in a joint statement. “We worked together to push for a response that balances protecting public safety in a manner commensurate with available intelligence about threats without going too far.”

The announcement came as more National Guard troops streamed in. The troops will come from all 50 states, three territories and Washington, defense officials said.

The troops will likely outnumber spectators for the swearing-in of Joe Biden as president and Kamala Harris as vice president.

“This may be the most unusual inauguration in American history. Maybe not the most consequential, but the most unusual,” the president-elect said Friday.

The Mall has never been shuttered during an inauguration since the ceremonies began being held on the West Front of the Capitol in 1981, said Jim Bendat, an inaugural historian and author of “Democracy’s Big Day.”

Bendat said Biden’s inauguration could be the smallest since 1945. That year, Franklin D. Roosevelt decided to hold the swearing-in at the White House because he was in ill health and the United States was fighting World War II, Bendat said. Only about 1,000 people attended.

“It’s a pretty stunning development, but it’s also understandable given what happened on Jan. 6,” Bendat said of the mob attack on the U.S. Capitol. “It’s really sad. What we had on Jan. 6 was a real assault on democracy. Now, this is a real symbolic assault on democracy.”

Bendat said the Mall has long been the spot where thousands have gathered to watch and participate in the peaceful transition of power from one administration to the next.

Crowds have regularly numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Bendat said the largest crowd on the Mall was believed to be for Barack Obama’s first presidential inauguration in 2009, which some estimates put at 1.8 million.

Two Northwest Washington fathers, Tim Mazzarell and Jon Groteboer, said on a recent day at a playground that they would be taking their respective families away from the capital during the inauguration.

Mazzarell is going to a family home in Rehoboth, Del., and Groteboer is headed to a family cabin in West Virginia.

“It seems safer in the woods,” Groteboer said.

Jeff Brooke, 58, another Washington resident, said he will treat this Inauguration Day like a “snow day” by stocking up on food and water, and staying indoors in case businesses close and another curfew is enacted.

Mollie Davis, a 20-year-old from St. Mary’s, Md., spent the past year watching and cheering for the only politician she has seen stutter like she does. Biden’s success on the national stage put her at ease, she said, and made her feel for the first time like nothing, not even her speech disorder, would stand in the way of her dreams of a career in politics.

Jan. 20 was supposed to be a day for Davis to celebrate that hope on the Mall with her dad. But she began to reconsider her plans to watch the swearing-in ceremony in person when the number of coronavirus cases began to surge in the area.

Last week’s insurrection was the final straw. She canceled her trip downtown out of fear of armed protesters descending once again on the nation’s capital.

“It would have been cool personally to see a person who stutters sworn in in person, but at the same time, I am concerned for a lot of people’s safety, so it’s for the best,” she said. “I’ve made my peace with that.”