Americans streamed to the site of the World Trade Centre and the gates of the White House to celebrate the death of Osama bin Laden – cheering, waving flags and belting out the national anthem.
Ground Zero, more familiar these past 10 years for bagpipes playing Amazing Grace and solemn speeches and arguments over what to build to honour the September 11 dead, became, for the first time, a place of revelry.
Lisa Ramaci, a New Yorker whose husband was a freelance journalist killed in the Iraq war, said: “We’ve been waiting a long time for this day.
“I think it’s a relief for New York tonight just in the sense that we had this 10 years of frustration just building and building, wanting this guy dead, and now he is, and you can see how happy people are.”
She was holding a flag and wearing a T-shirt depicting the twin towers and, in crosshairs, Bin Laden.
Nearby, a man held up a cardboard sign that said: “Obama 1, Osama 0.”
In Times Square, dozens stood together on a clear spring night and broke into applause when a New York Fire Department vehicle drove by, flashed its lights and sounded its siren.
A man held an American flag, and others sang The Star-Spangled Banner.
In Washington, in front of the White House, a crowd began gathering before President Barack Obama addressed the nation late on Sunday night to declare: “Justice has been done.”
The crowd grew, and within half an hour had filled the street in front of the White House and begun spilling into nearby Lafayette Park.
Marlene English, who lives in Arlington, Virginia, and lobbies on defence issues, said: “It’s not over, but it’s one battle that’s been won, and it’s a big one.”
The celebrations came together after Americans began hearing about the death of Bin Laden from bulletins on television, texts and calls from family and friends, and posts on social networking sites.
Bin Laden was killed in his luxury hideout in Pakistan, early on Monday local time and late on Sunday night in the US, in a firefight with American forces. Mr Obama said no Americans had been harmed in the operation.
When news of the President’s announcement began to filter across the country, the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies were in the middle of a game in Philadelphia, and chants of “USA! USA!” began among the crowd at Citizens Bank Park.
The chant – “USA! USA!” echoed in Dearborn, Michigan, a heavily Middle Eastern suburb of Detroit, where a small crowd gathered outside City Hall and waved American flags.
Across town, some honked their car horns as they drove along the main street where most of the Arab-American restaurants and shops are located.
At the Arabica Café, big-screen TVs that normally show sports were all turned to news about Bin Laden. The manager there, Mohamed Kobeissi, said it was finally justice for the victims.
People said they were surprised that Bin Laden had finally been found and killed.
John Gocio, a doctor from Arkansas who was gathering what details he could from TV screens at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, said: “After such a long time, you kind of give up and say ‘Well, that’s never going to happen’.”
The celebration in New York came precisely one year after a militant from Connecticut spread panic by driving a bomb-laden car into the heart of Times Square.