I’m still processing what happened last night. One minute, I was gathered in a living room with friends, watching election returns come in. The next minute, Barack Obama had been declared the winner, his moving acceptance speech was over, and I was in the middle of the intersection at 14th and U Streets NW with thousands of other D.C. residents, yelling, singing, high-fiving and hugging total strangers.

Car horns honked throughout the city. People climbed on top of street lamps, newspaper boxes and bus shelters. As we moved from U Street, which eventually filled with people and cars all the way from 10th to 15th Street, and headed south to the White House, the celebration didn’t slow down. Down 14th street to Thomas Circle, everyone hooted and hollered. They stood up through their sunroofs to cheer on passersby on the sidewalk. They danced. They played drums. They honked and honked and honked.

Washington, D.C.’s majority Democrat, majority black population flooded the streets with noise. Inside the crowd, a highly diverse makeup was evident. I saw Asians, South Asians, Latinos, Native Americans, whites and blacks coming together in the crowd to cheer the election of this country’s first African-American president.

This wasn’t the kind of aggressive crowd a big city can sometimes get in the aftermath of a major sports championship. Washington was joyous. In those early morning hours, there was nothing but love between neighbors. At the very site of the worst of the 1968 riots, there was dancing instead.

At the White House, big crowds gathered on both sides of the compound to let the least popular president in U.S. history know they were glad to see him go. Spontaneous renditions of The Star-Spangled Banner and “Nananana nananana hey hey hey goodbye,” broke out within the ebullient masses.

There are still so many disagreements about the direction this city should head, but none of those concerns were on the minds of Washingtonians last night. D.C. residents of every background embraced each other without hesitation.

Traffic patterns may be back to normal this morning, but we have a feeling the outpouring of community spirit, excitement, and affection for one another will continue here for at least the next couple of days. And we hope that it lasts a good deal longer than that.

We’ll be continuing to post more still images, videos and thoughts from those of you who were out on the streets of D.C. last night throughout the day. Submit your photos to DCist’s Flickr Group, your videos to DCist Videos (or tag a YouTube video with “dcist”). And as always, tell us about your experience in the comments.