London: Look one way in London on Wednesday afternoon and you see a jogger heading home from work, past three lads excitedly debating some conspiracy tripe they read on some blog.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Look another and you see a Costa Coffee worker from just opposite the attack site, eyes damp with tears and a stricken expression on her face, walking towards Waterloo without even looking at the faces of the people in her path.
There are the usual police-tape gawkers, poking their mobile phones over the blue line in the direction of Westminster Bridge for some social media fodder. Some are not ashamed to take selfies.
Just behind them a woman sobs into her phone as she leaves a message on someone's voicemail "please, call, please, just call or text when you hear this, please".
There is the constant drone of helicopters overhead, the regular wail of police and ambulance sirens.
There are shocked faces on some passers-by, as they silently digest the news.
But not many.
The political heart of London was excised from the map by a huge police cordon today. But words, Tweets and videos, informative or expressing defiance and support, flew around the city unhindered.
The heart beat on.
I was in London during the 7/7 bombings in 2005.
The effect on the city was catastrophic. With the Tube and buses out of action, trains restricted, most cars banned, and the mobile network on the blink, the place was like a post-apocalyptic shadow of London.
There was no Twitter, Snapchat, or Facebook. Mobile news sites for the pre-smartphone era were in an embarrassing infancy (remember WAP? Be glad you don't).
The workers of London left radios and TV screens and streamed to the railway stations in shocked silence.
Only the next day did they start talking about the 'spirit of the Blitz' and 'Britain unbowed'.
I couldn't pin down for you why today was different - it was a combination of things. The scale of the attack, of course, was much smaller. The infrastructure of the city was unharmed. The speed and size of the response by the police and ambulance services was quite phenomenal.
Now we have the ability to 'know' (in the halting, two-leaps-forward-one-embarrassing-retraction-back way that 24/7 news now works) what is going on. The ability to talk about it, straight away. To assure your loved ones you are ok. To get practical information.
To get over the fear, faster.
Terror attacks may have become easier. But society is now more resilient.
London was hit today. But not even for a moment was the city on its knees.
