Here, in the center of the city, Farrow must find a way to enter a virtual fortress, guarded by armed deputies on all sides.

With the inner and outer doors shut, the gateways were virtual fortresses.

And his house in the Georgetown suburb of Washington was a virtual fortress.

Diplomats said the American embassy was better protected - higher on a hill and a virtual fortress - while the two other embassies were more vulnerable.

Within months, he was recaptured and sent to Green Haven, a virtual fortress that houses the state's only execution chamber and 2,194 of its most violent criminals.

Anyway, the manor was a virtual fortress and had already seen off an entire LEPretrieval team.

In both the Middle East and Indonesia, schools attended by American children have been turned into virtual fortresses.

Tivoli was portrayed as a virtual fortress, populated by gunmen loyal to Coke, regarded as the most powerful of Jamaica's crime dons.

That has turned some parts of Saudi Arabia's cities into virtual fortresses surrounded by concrete blast walls and barriers.

The police turnout was only one indication of the security precautions that have turned the FleetCenter into a virtual fortress.