Monday’s certification by Congress of President-elect Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential election was the first official step in the peaceful transfer of power. From outside the White House to the U.S. Capitol, the streets of Washington were blanketed in freshly fallen snow, the wintry scene providing the only complications to members of the House and Senate carrying out their duties to affirm the election results.

It was a marked contrast to the same proceedings four years earlier, on Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump’s supporters flooded the capital city’s streets and, ultimately, the same chamber where federal legislators were attempting to gather and carry out their prescribed duty. That day would ultimately devolve into violence, deaths and hundreds of cases against those charged with unlawful acts related to the attack.

Police with guns drawn watch as rioters try to break into the House Chamber at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. Four years later, lawmakers from both chambers of Congress would gather in front of the same set of doors to vote to certify President-elect Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential election. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The joint session of Congress convenes to confirm the Electoral College votes, affirming President-elect Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. The succinct and challenge-free procedural gathering stood in contrast to four years earlier, when police with guns drawn watched from behind the same set of doors as rioters tried to break into the House Chamber on Jan. 6, 2021. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Photographers from The Associated Press were present on both days, capturing in real time the violence and aftermath in 2021 — and, in 2025, retracing their own steps, visiting the locations around Washington that played key roles on that fateful day and capturing images that make possible a side-by-side comparison of what differences can be marked in just a few years.

From the Washington Monument to the White House to the U.S. Capitol, where rioters unleashed the most violent attack on the seat of American legislative power in 200 years, and Congress four years later carried out an uneventful and peaceful certification, the AP was there.

Supporters of President Donald Trump rally at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. As a winter storm bore down on the nation’s capital four years later, lawmakers would again gather at the U.S. Capitol, this time without protests, challenges or violence — but behind layers of black security fencing serving — to certify Trump’s 2024 win over Vice President Kamala Harris. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Security barriers surround the Capitol as snow falls ahead of a joint session of Congress to certify the votes from the Electoral College in the presidential election, in Washington, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. On the same day four years earlier, supporters of then-President Donald Trump rallied in the same space, protesting the certification of Trump’s loss to Joe Biden in a day that would devolve into the most gruesome attack on the seat of American democracy in 200 years. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

With the White House in the background, President Donald Trump speaks at a rally on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. Following one of the most amazing political comebacks in U.S. history, Trump in the four years since has gone from being ousted from the seat of U.S. executive power to, on Jan. 6, 2025, being certified by a nearly snow-bound Congress as the winner of the 2024 presidential election. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

People take photographs of each other on the Ellipse with the White House in the background, on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, in Washington. The presidential headquarters served as a backdrop exactly four years earlier for then-President Donald Trump’s call out to his supporters to “fight like hell” in what became a gruesome attack on the U.S. Capitol as Congress met to certify his 2020 loss to Joe Biden. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

House members prepare to leave the floor as rioters try to break into the House Chamber at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. On the same day four years later, House and Senate tellers would in orderly fashion read out states’ certifications of President-elect Donald Trump’s 2024 election win, as Vice President, whom he defeated, presided over the chamber’s proceeding. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., reads the certification for Alabama during a joint session of Congress to confirm the Electoral College votes, affirming President-elect Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. The uneventful and challenge-free proceedings were in marked contrast to four years earlier, as House members prepared to leave the floor with rioters trying to break into the House Chamber at the U.S. Capitol amid their attempt to certify Joe Biden’s 2020 election win over Trump on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Papers and gas masks are left behind after House of Representatives members left the floor of the House chamber as protesters try to break into the chamber at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. The same seats would be filled with members of Congress four years later, as they gathered for peaceful proceedings to certify the 2024 election win of President-elect Donald Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris, who presided over the joint session. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Lawmakers gather in the House chamber for a joint session of Congress to certify the votes from the Electoral College in the presidential election, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. The same day four years earlier was one of chaos and uncertainty, with papers and gas masks littering the chamber after House of Representatives members left the floor as protesters aiming to disrupt the proceedings tried to break into the chamber. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

U.S. Capitol Police try to hold back rioters outside the east doors to the House side of the U.S. Capitol, Wednesday, Jan 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

The east doors at the Capitol are seen after a joint session of the House and Senate convenes to confirm the Electoral College votes cast in November’s election in Washington, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Lawmakers evacuate the floor as rioters try to break into the House Chamber at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan 6, 2021. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., pats House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., on the back as they greet each other during a joint session of Congress to certify the votes from the Electoral College in the presidential election, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Supporters of President Donald Trump rally outside the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

The West side of the U.S. Capitol is seen with double fence as Congress certify the votes from the Electoral College in the presidential election, in Washington, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)