As the soft October day began fading at the Lincoln Memorial, visitors looked down at the shimmering image of the Washington Monument in the long, narrow Reflecting Pool.

Just then, an airliner swept low over the Potomac River. People went silent.

You could tell what they were thinking; they were thinking of terrorism.

"It was just kind of . . . it was just spooky," said Scott Krel, a visitor from La Crosse, Wis.

Spooky indeed. Not long after that, someone smelled an odd smell, and the whole memorial was evacuated. It turned out to be spilled cleaning solvent.

The memorial is one of the shrines in this city of monuments and symbols of what Abraham Lincoln called "the mystic chords of memory" that tie the United States together. It is also less than 2 miles from the Pentagon, hit by a hijacked jetliner Sept. 11.


TOURISM SUFFERING
Since that day, many fewer visitors than usual have come to see the nation's capital. There are almost no schoolchildren on class tours, few tour buses.

One measure is hotel occupancy, which hit a record 80.8 percent last September. This September, it was 30 percent. It has improved a bit, but it is up to only 40 percent.

Those who have traveled here are glad they did. "It's beautiful," said Brian Harvey of Yorba Linda (Orange County), touring historical sites in the East with his wife, Freda. "We were going to cancel. But we decided that coming was the right thing to do. Otherwise, we would be giving in to the whole idea of intimidation."

In some ways Washington looks the same. Flags snap in the breeze above the statues and monuments: Gen. William Sherman on his horse; Andrew Jackson waving his hat; the Washington Monument, which by law is the tallest building in the city.

But all is not the same. There is security everywhere: police cars parked on the National Mall, uniformed officers around all the monuments and government buildings.

The White House, officially described as "symbolic of the American presidency to the world," is closed to public tours. Visitors peer through the iron fence on Pennsylvania Avenue.


ARRESTS AT WHITE HOUSE
Earlier this week, visitors saw a small drama. A group of protesters tied themselves with light rope to the fence, held flowers and sang. They were grandmotherly types, gentle pacifists with gray hair, wearing T-shirts that said, "Thou Shalt Not Kill," and similar sentiments. There were nine of them; they sang old songs about peace. They refused to leave, and they were arrested.

One of their supporters, a bicycle courier named Chris Fitz, said even he felt uneasy in Washington these days. He is aware, he said, that Osama bin Laden has called President Bush "the head of the international infidels."

"I don't even like to take the Metro train that goes by the Pentagon," Fitz said.

Michelle Lewis, a law student at the University of Houston, and her husband,

Matt, had booked their trip to Washington late the night of Sept. 10. The next morning, they saw the terror attacks and were very frightened.

They decided to fly anyway. On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Michelle Lewis said it was more important just now to see the city's monuments to past leaders and other wars. "It makes us feel more patriotic," she said. No, she said, that was the wrong word.

"Seeing the city and the buildings makes people proud," she said. "I think the city does that, especially now."


UNOFFICIAL MEMORIALS
There are newer memorials now. A couple of them are across the Potomac at the Pentagon, cards and flowers and candles and little notes from people to remember those who were killed there in September.

People have come there every day for weeks now. Most just stand and look, saying nothing.

"I took the day off from work," said Stephanie Poe, who lives in Washington,

"and I just came here. I had to come."

Two families from Athens, Texas, were there, too. "I got a call from my daughter back home," said Shirley Lippincott. "She said, 'Mom, you have to get on a plane and fly right home. We're at war!' "

"But you know what?" said her husband, Marlon Lippincott. "That would be acting out of fear."

David and Betty Gray are not tourists. He grew up in Washington, and she's lived there for years. But they came the other night to see the Franklin D. Roosevelt memorial on the Tidal Basin.

"I think it's a great time to come to this city," said David Gray. "To be here and be in the capital of the country makes you feel a lot stronger."

They stood under the famous quote from Roosevelt's first inaugural address carved in the wall of the memorial: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

"At this time," said Betty Gray, "that has a special meaning."