U.S. Ambassador to Canada Hosts July 4 Party Amid Tension Over New Bridge

Mr. Trump’s 35-minute address was followed by what the White House had billed as “the largest pyrotechnics display in the history of the world.”

When the show started, the fireworks were loud and large — and red, white and blue. Later, with so many fireworks going off in a grand finale, they could barely be seen through a smoky haze and a light rain. All that was left to light the sky was lightning.

The muggy day in much of the country was otherwise marked with the usual American exuberance, with fighter jets, tall ships, parachutists and flag-festooned pickups. Across the city of Philadelphia, bells rang at noon to mark the moment in 1776 when the Continental Congress voted to approve the Declaration of Independence, and re-enactors dressed as Minutemen marched on the grass of Independence Mall.

In New York, a flotilla of tall schooners and sloops sailed up the Hudson River, with one ship carrying an issue of The Boston Gazette from July 22, 1776, which reprinted the full text of the Declaration of Independence. In Charlottesville, Va., 75 people from around the world became United States citizens during a naturalization ceremony at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s home. And in Los Angeles, hundreds were starting to show up at a park for an “Independence Day” party that is scheduled to go on all weekend.

Here’s what we’re covering:

• Trump’s speech: Mr. Trump used his remarks to praise the nation and its history, but also to paint his political rivals as “communists” who do not belong in the country. He also lobbied for a strict voter ID law known as the SAVE America Act, which is stalled in Congress. Read more ›

• Brooklyn Bridge fire: In New York, a fireworks celebration appeared to go awry, as a fire on the Brooklyn Bridge broke out that was later extinguished, according to the local authorities. The authorities said no injuries were reported. Read more ›

• Fires and heat: Some places across the Western United States canceled fireworks displays, worried about the danger of sparking wildfires. Dangerously high temperatures disrupted events planned up and down the East Coast.

• Huge display: Organizers in Washington planned to set off more than 850,000 fireworks over 40 minutes, an extravaganza that would be many times larger than past Independence Day fireworks displays. It would be so large that National Park Service officials believed it could leave “hazardous” pollution over downtown Washington for hours afterward. Read more ›

While extolling the values that make this country special, he said: “Unlike so many others in the world, in this country we have freedom of speech, freedom of religion, equal justice under the law — although I wasn’t treated that well, but we won’t get into that.”

What was meant to be the centerpiece of the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration was in some ways just another Trump rally. The president who calls himself “the man who gets much larger audiences than Elvis in his prime” has a set list. He rarely deviates from it.

Even the warm-up acts were the same as usual. Mr. Trump got the tenor Christopher Macchio to sing “God Bless America.” Next up was Lee Greenwood. He sang “God Bless the USA.”

These were the singers the organizers could get after many other entertainers bolted, wanting nothing to do with the lawn parties that the Trump administration had planned for the nation’s anniversary.

It was a minor miracle the speech happened at all.

Days of extreme heat in Washington led to rolling storms and lightning bolts Saturday night. People who traveled from all over the country to stand in line for hours were forced off the mall by the authorities and told to take cover in government buildings shortly before the president was meant to appear.

A few minutes after 9 p.m., he posted online that the show would go on, even if it meant he had to speak at 2 in the morning. “Storms bring luck to whatever the occasion,” he wrote. “They also make events a little bit more exciting!”

About an hour later, he posted again: “I’M HERE!!!”

About an hour after that, he walked onstage.

“I want to thank everybody, because they did the right thing,” he said. “I said, ‘There’s no way, if we have to speak in front of one person at 4 o’clock in the morning, I’m going to be there!’ There’s no way we can be deterred.”

He brought artifacts with him.

There was a flag he said was the first to fly over the Brooklyn Bridge. There was a flag that, he said, “flew triumphant when the British waved the white flag of surrender at Yorktown.”

The speech did contain much more history than what one ordinarily hears at a Trump rally. The president talked about the “genius” of the founding fathers. He made mention of Annie Oakley, Buffalo Bill and Lewis and Clark. He told the story of Sgt. William Harvey Carney, the first African American man to win the Medal of Honor. “He loved our country,” Mr. Trump said, “he loved our flag.” Several veterans appeared onstage, and Mr. Trump told stories of their valor and thanked them for their service.

But his typical asides had a way of puncturing the history lesson.

“We rebuilt our military in my first term,” he said at one point. “We used it a little bit in our — actually, I should say third term, but I won’t do that, because I don’t want any controversy.”

After about 40 minutes, he was finished (sometimes he goes for double that).

“We have a great fireworks display tonight, and I’m going to be watching it with you,” he told the crowd who’d braved the heat and the rain and the lightning to hear him.

“It’s going to start very quickly, so, thank you very much,” he said. “You’re going to really like this.”

A New York Times photographer in Manhattan saw billowing flames coming from at least four spots on the bridge’s walkway, in places where fireworks were being set off. As the fireworks show concluded, a water truck was putting out the fires.

After the fireworks show ended, flashing red flights from emergency vehicles could be seen in the middle of the Brooklyn Bridge.

A call about a fire on the bridge came in at 9:32 p.m., the Police Department said. No injuries had been reported. Police officials said that the burning was “very likely” ignited by Fourth of July fireworks.

By shortly after 10 p.m., the fire appeared to have been extinguished, officials said.

The bridge remained closed to traffic shortly before 10:30 p.m., with emergency vehicles blocking all lanes. An officer guarding the entrance to the bridge said it was closed to foot traffic, too. Shortly before 11 p.m., some emergency vehicles had left the bridge.

Sharanika Akter, 33, came from Queens to watch the fireworks show over the Brooklyn Bridge with her husband.

“Nobody panicked” in the large crowd on Old Fulton Street, she said. But many who had been recording the show kept their videos rolling as smoke rose from the bridge.

“Honestly, we were all pretty relaxed,” Ms. Akter said. “I thought it was pretty small, from my view from the ground.”

Having traveled to Lower Manhattan from the Bronx and struggled to find a clear vantage point to watch the fireworks, Llurate Cekaj and her daughter, Kledisa Cekaj, hoped to redeem the night with a cool stroll across the Brooklyn Bridge. The Police Department prevented them from making the trek, because of the fire.

“I wanted to walk, this night is so nice,” Ms. Cekaj, 39, said. “Now we came for nothing.”

Kledisa, 14, said: “I’m really disappointed.”

Love Majewski was watching the fireworks from Manhattan, close to the underside of the Brooklyn Bridge when she was surprised to see orange flames.

“I saw this weird fire, flames that came out of nowhere,” said Ms. Majewski, 53, who lives in Manhattan and had appeared on the TV show “Mob Wives.”

Ms. Majewski said that she sensed something was out of control when she saw flames growing in between what appeared to be meticulously timed fireworks blasts.

She said that tourists around her couldn’t tell that something was wrong.

“It was very obvious that, for native New Yorkers, it was not part of the show,” Ms. Majewski said. “This is not usual, this is out of control.”

As midnight approached, the flashing lights of police vehicles could still be seen blocking the Brooklyn Bridge from the Manhattan side.

Rainfall dissolved the steady crowd of people who through the night had approached the bridge, hoping to take it to Brooklyn. A few uniformed Police Department officers were still posted, turning scraggly, wet pedestrians away.

Dakota Santiago contributed reporting.

Less than a month before that meeting, the owner of the Ambassador Bridge had donated $1 million to a super PAC devoted to Mr. Trump.

In a recent podcast interview, Mr. Hoekstra dismissed Canada’s funding of the Gordie Howe Bridge, which will be covered through tolls over the next half-century, as a “big myth.”

About $300 million in trade crosses the border between the two cities each day, and the delay has caused estimated losses of $5 million to $7 million a week in uncollected tolls.

At his party on Saturday, Mr. Hoekstra appeared to diminish the importance of the issue. “We’ve got a few little issues to work out,” he told a crowd of around 2,000 people. “We’ve got to figure out this bridge thing.”

Also on the list of issues, he said, were Mr. Trump’s tariffs on Canadian autos, steel and aluminum. These tariffs have disrupted Canadian industries and led to layoffs.

“We’re going to get over this,” Mr. Hoekstra said to no obvious reaction from the crowd. “We’re going get through it.”

He became noticeably more enthusiastic when he moved on to announce a joint flyover by the United States and Royal Canadian Air Forces — an apparent first for the annual party.

For dogs, Fourth of July fireworks and their associated cacophony can be a jarring experience, causing fright and alarm that can last for days and weeks. For dog owners, it can be pure pandemonium once the show starts.

“It takes him weeks to recover,” Julie Zander, a Los Angeles-based sales coordinator said of her dog, Focaccia, who has been cowering amid the city’s World Cup celebrations. “He acts like it’s a war zone. He won’t go outside at night anymore.”

Ms. Zander and her husband, Chris, an executive producer, escaped to Cambria to ease Focaccia’s stress. They were amused by the number of Californians they met who had come for the same reason. “It’s like a convention of timid dogs,” Ms. Zander said.

“It’s helicopter parenting,” she added. A parent of two adult human children, she was wearing a sweater of a patriotic goldendoodle.

Cambria does not widely advertise itself as a refuge for pet owners on July 4, and the abolishment of fireworks here has actually been a source of frustration among some locals.

“Basically, the bureaucracy has won,” said Aaron Linn, a longtime Cambria resident whose family runs a cluster of restaurants and shops in town.

But more and more, dog owners are showing up here after prior attempts to calm their pets with drugs and sound machines have failed. Cambria, in turn, has adapted.

“I’ve noticed more people looking to to sit down in our restaurant and saying that their dog is a service dog when we know in our hearts it isn’t,” Mr. Linn said. “I’ve also seen ourselves as a staff become more open to it.” Many of the town’s hotels and businesses now welcome pets.

In the breezy evening before the holiday, restaurants were populated by dogs on leashes and in backpacks. Collars jingled in the hotel lobbies. Dogs lazed on balconies and gazed longingly at their owners down on Moonstone Beach, where they are not allowed. (A line in the sand, if you will.)

Melissa Larson, the general manager of the Cambria Pines Lodge, which is so dog-friendly it has added a dog park to its roster of amenities, said that starting in June, the hotel gets daily calls from pet owners asking about fireworks. Karen Cartwright, director of hospitality at the nearby Cambria Shores Inn, said that pet owners even call asking if fireworks can be heard in Cambria from Cayucos, about 15 miles away (they cannot).

At the front desk of the Cambria Pines Lodge, Leona Bethel said the hotel had checked in 16 guests with dogs so far on July 3, with five more expected later that day. She handed out goody bags with water bowls and dog treats to a line of pet owners spilling out of minivans and S.U.V.s. She estimated there were more dogs currently in the lodge than any other time over the year.

Pau Pescador, a Los Angeles artist, drank a glass of white wine on the patio with her “princess,” a longhaired Chihuahua named Mina, lounging on her lap. Ms. Pescador had escaped from Highland Park, which she called “the center of illegal fireworks in Los Angeles.” The trip was a respite for both her and Mina.

“I think everyone is sort of scratching their head on how to celebrate, or, if they want to celebrate, what does it mean to celebrate America at this moment?” Ms. Pescador said. “For me, this is less about celebrating anything specific than creating a moment for Mina, and letting her have a nice holiday, and I’m just kind of tagging along.”

Mina had already enjoyed a French fry, and more delicacies were possible later.

Ted Tanner and his wife, Donna, were heading to the front desk with their dog, Coco.

Mr. Tanner said that in the past, he had tolerated fireworks, even though they bothered him. “I’ve got PTSD and everything else, so I don’t like loud noises and crowds, but if you need to light off fireworks, then you should,” he said. “It’s the Fourth of July.”

The event draws hundreds of runners and thousands of viewers. Over the course of the Independence Day weekend, Seward swells from a seaside city of just under 3,000 residents to nearly 30,000, briefly turning into the fourth most populous city in Alaska. On Saturday, a crowd of spectators snaked nearly a mile long from the base of the mountain to the finish line. Contestants disappeared up Mount Marathon in the rain and reappeared, covered in mud, on their descent. The racers were met with the sound of excited cheers and cowbells from viewers.

One runner, Joe Nyholm, 34, has participated in the Mount Marathon Race nearly every year since 2008, when the longtime Seward resident was still in high school. But running in this year’s race is especially meaningful, he said, after he survived a plane crash last year.

“There were points in my recovery where I was wondering if I was going to be able to do it again,” Mr. Nyholm said of the race. “The whole time it was on my mind as a goal. It was the first thing I wanted to do when I was recovered.”

Usually Mr. Nyholm aims to complete the race in less than an hour. But to account for his recovery, he set a new goal of under two hours.His actual time? Just under 1 hour and 22 minutes.

After the race, Mr. Nyholm reflected on the day — and the holiday. “Having the freedom to do things like this and celebrate is meaningful to me,” he said.

After lightning was spotted in the area, spectators were told to take shelter in nearby buildings, including Smithsonian museums, the Jefferson Memorial and several designated federal departments, including the Internal Revenue Service. But some of those buildings were not open to serve as shelters.

People crowded around the entrances of the Commerce Department, locked out. A nearby officer shrugged when someone asked how to get inside.

In a statement provided a little after 7:30 p.m., a spokesman for the Secret Service said that no one else was being admitted to the mall, and that “this action was taken solely in the interest of public safety.” It added, “We have no estimate for when screening may resume.”

Some people on the mall became angry, with several hundred refusing to leave and arguing with Secret Service personnel, chanting, “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” A federal law enforcement officer tried to assure people that the event had not been canceled, though many were not convinced.

A severe thunderstorm watch from the National Weather Service remained in effect until 10 p.m. for the Washington region.