After news came late Sunday night that Osama bin Laden, the most wanted fugitive in the world, had been killed by U.S. special forces, crowds poured out in front of the White House, singing “The Star Spangled Banner” and chanting “U.S.A, U.S.A.” 

Times Square celebration (CNN screenshot)

From CNN:

"I was in D.C. during 9/11," said Mason Wright, 33, who recalled his days as a student at American University watching a second plane hit the World Trade Center in 2001. "It's hard to believe 10 years later, it's over."

"It's terrible to sit here and celebrate someone's death, but to the thousands of lives that were lost -- it's finally come to an end," he added.

The outpouring of patriotism in the wake of the news was especially pronounced in New York City, where locals gathered near the former site of the World Trade Center towers.

From the Guardian newspaper:

By 1am several hundred people had arrived in the neighbourhood, which is now a huge building site where the office complex that will replace the World Trade Centre is being built. Many of them were interviewed by the cable news TV crews who also descended on the site.

"I never thought this night would happen, that we would kill or capture bin Laden. I thank the Lord that he has been eliminated," said Bob Gibson, a retired New York city policeman who lost colleagues in the attack.

Young people were especially vocal in the early morning demonstrations in Times Square, with people waving American flags and some chanting “Ole, ole, ole, ole.”

The patriotism overflowed on the hyperlocal level, as well. Timothy Dougherty, mayor of Morristown, New Jersey, spoke to the local Patch reporter:

We never want to forget the people who gave their lives in such a horrendous act," he said, adding he hopes America can continue to improve its relationships throughout the world.

Such a swell in national pride is to be expected after a such a moment in a long struggle. This is a day, after all, that many Americans thought would never happen.

Some, however, expressed caution.

The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza wrote that the death of bin Laden would serve as a bookend to the rise in patriotism that followed the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon:

In the wake of that terrorist attack, there was an extended period of bipartisanship — or, perhaps more accurately, non-partisanship — in the political world.

The early reaction to bin Laden’s death suggests a similar putting aside of partisanship as a rallying effect takes hold in the country. And, Obama encouraged that sentiment in his remarks tonight; “Let us think back to the sense of unity that prevailed on 9/11,” said the president.

What good that will do for a country still at war in Afghanistan and whether that non-partisanship can be realized or sustained is one of the questions moving forward.

Reach Ryan Faughnder here.