Eerie quiet in Washington as capital digs in for a tempestuous election night

Downtown Washington on election day had the feel of a city digging in for a siege. The White House and the Treasury were surrounded by a high steel fence and in the surrounding blocks, businesses and apartment buildings had covered every square foot of exposed glass with plywood. The wealthier and more cautious had laid down sandbags to hold wooden buttresses that in turn held the plywood in place, and the city centre began to empty out in the…