Impromptu celebrations pop up across Washington following Biden victory announcement

On a glorious fall day, it was news that the region, which voted overwhelmingly for Biden in the presidential contest, had been desperate to hear.

Around noon, an impromptu parade broke out on the streets of the nation's capital to celebrate Biden's victory. A brass band perched on the back of a truck played upbeat jazz as people spilled out of homes, shops and restaurants in downtown D.C. to join the march.

The crowd swelled quickly as the truck moved from the heart of Adams Morgan in the direction of the White House - first a dozen, then three dozen, and soon close to a hundred. A few policemen on motorcycles escorted the group as passing cars stopped to honk, their drivers cheering.

Celebrations erupted across the city. Cheers and clapping filled the air outside Eastern Market on Capitol Hill. A few blocks away near Third and Pennsylvania Avenue SE, "The Star Spangled Banner" blasted from speakers on a repeated loop. 

A woman on a bicycle pedaled through Columbia Heights shouting, "it's over!" 

A man in Shaw stood on the curb with a stemmed glass of red wine, raising it to passersby.

"We won!" he shouted in Spanish. "We won!"

Fireworks exploded in bursts as neighbors emerged on porches with pots and pans to bang. Some simply stood there, raising their phones as if it were proof what they were seeing was real.

"The nightmare is over," a man called to his neighbor, ambling out of a rowhouse just before noon.

On the city's Columbia Heights neighborhood, Black, Hispanic and White residents honked their horns and cheered. People eating outdoors at restaurants pumped their fists and yelled in response.

Residents popped bottles of champagne on their front porches while Latin music - a mainstay in the neighborhood - blared in the background.

And in the middle of the cheers, an MPD police officer drove by and raised his fist out the window.

Outside the White House on Saturday afternoon, D.C. residents made themselves heard. Cars honked nonstop as drivers stuck their head out windows and waved Biden flags. Cyclists cheered as they sailed past, lifting fists in the air. Along 15th Street, where protesters had so many times marched against the outgoing president, a young Black woman stuck her head above the sunroof of her car, yelling: "FINALLY!"

In the leafy, quiet residential neighborhoods of upper Northwest Washington, where even the Halloween decorations featured Biden-Harris signs and "VOTE" themes, masked residents rushed to Connecticut Avenue to cheer, whoop and ring cowbells as cars and trucks drove by with signs hailing the election of the Democratic ticket.

Parents waved small American flags and held their children on their shoulders, and even a recycling truck blared its horn as scores of vehicles headed south on Connecticut Avenue toward the White House.

People flocked toward the White House on foot and by car, honking their horns, sticking solidarity fists out their windows and congratulating strangers on the street. They carried Biden-Harris signs, Black Lives Matter signs, American flags - the mood one of a party inside a sigh of relief.

The Trump hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue NW became a scene of beeping horns, middle finger waves and many expletive-laced goodbyes.

A car drove by with a poster-sized picture of Harris waving from the roof window. A biker shouted "Merry Christmas Donald Trump!"

Two runners stopped to pose in front of the hotel for a selfie.

"For the first time in four years, I feel like I have something to look forward to," said Hannah, the runner in a Biden-Harris mask, who declined to give her last name because she works for a member of Congress.

"We're going all the way to 1600!" her running partner said, before the two headed for the White House.