WASHINGTON — Even in a city that is used to high-security events, the preparations for this inauguration are not normal.
But D.C.'s gotten plenty of practice with "not normal" over the past 12 days, and weeks, and months. And every time, the Nation's Capitol kept pushing forward.
2020 was a year so unbelievable, it made the word "unprecedented" cliché.
And when the calendar finally turned over, 2021 took just six days to put its own stamp on the history books.
A mob of pro-Trump rioters attacked the Capitol, shocking the city's sensibilities, but never its resolve.
"Everyone you could think of yelling at me saying, you know, 'Why are you doing this? You're the traitor!'" said Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges, who survived being crushed in a door during the Capitol attack.
"We're not the traitors," Hodges said. "We're the ones who saved Congress that day and we'll do it as many times as necessary."
D.C. is now facing its next challenge: swearing in the nation's next president.
"There's a great deal of very concerning chatter, and it's what you don't know that we are preparing for," said Special Agent in Charge Matt Miller of the Secret Service's Washington field office.
Security will be unprecedented.
Some elements may even last after the event is over.
"We all have to think about a new posture," said DC Mayor Muriel Bowser. "We certainly have to think about a new posture in the city. So while we are focused on January 20, we're also focused on January 21 and every day thereafter."
But it is a responsibility this city has always proudly borne, even when the challenges are unlike any before.
"We have a special responsibility that there is a peaceful transition of power in our country," said Bowser.