【2017 Archives】

017 ArchivesJacob Javits Center was quiet and deserted on Wednesday afternoon, but an alternate reality was not hard to imagine.

The night before, Hillary Clinton and her most avid supporters had crammed into the center in the middle of Manhattan, under a physical and proverbial glass ceiling, ripe with the sense of history in the making, waiting for their nominee to become the first female president-elect.

It's easy to imagine giddy men and women sporting "I'm with her" t-shirts on Wednesday afternoon, snapping selfies and staring in wonder at what they'd witnessed the night before. Many people would surely stop by to take a photo of the building where such monumental history was made.

Alas, the huge section of the Javits Center that had been full of Clinton supporters the night before was occupied only by a few workers tearing the whole scene down -- a party whose mood had turned sour long before midnight.

It's hard to imagine better optics for a presidential victory speech. Clinton would have been surrounded by supporters eager to hear her mention the glass ceiling she had finally shattered as she stood under a physical symbol of the barrier she had just broken through.

Instead, the day after the election, on that stage, the news on screen read: "Clinton leads popular vote, loses presidency."

Mashablestopped by the center on Wednesday to take photos of the eerie, barren aftermath.

Workers spent much of their afternoon pulling down light fixtures from the ceiling.

Eventually the last speakers were dismantled.

Boxes of American flags sat by the floor Clinton had hoped to take on election night.

If you looked hard enough, there were other signs of a gathering. Here, the remnants of the press contingent.

Most of it was already packed up and ready to go.

Former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum was speaking on a giant TV.

And one sad box of flags was simply labelled "Rejects."