What is likely the largest crowd in Washington history poured onto the National Mall in the bitter cold predawn, and kept on arriving as the sun rose higher and Barack Obama become the 44th president of the United States.
“I am stunned,” said Clark McPhail, professor emeritus at the University of Illinois who is one of the leading experts in the science of crowd estimates.
The 1.1 miles between the West Lawn of the Capitol and the Washington Monument appeared to be packed with people at “high density,” or two-and-a-half-square-feet per person, McPhail said.
That would amount to about 1 million people in that space, though he cautioned that the photos weren’t yet conclusive,
Another 450,000 could fit between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial if packed at the same density, which varying crowd reports surmised.
The inauguration of Lyndon Johnson in 1968 is reported to have the previous record at 1.2 million, but many attribute that estimate more to Johnson’s bravado than an actual head count.
By 4:30 a.m., people from across the country bundled in hats, scarves, coats and blankets, streamed down Pennsylvania Ave. awaiting an opening onto the non-ticketed portion of the National Mall. At 5:15, the gate at 7th St. NW opened to cheers and the first to arrive assumed their places for the next seven hours.
For Elroy Edwards, a 38-year-old teacher and home inspector, the seven-hour bus ride from Syracuse, NY, and the long, cold wait completed a journey that his father, the late Rev. Oliver Edwards, began 44 years ago in central Alabama.
“My father marched with Martin Luther King in Selma,” Edwards said, referring to the infamous four-day march to Montgomery marked by brutal attacks by segregationists. “I grew up hearing my father’s stories of the civil rights movement – I had to be here for this.”
Still before dawn, was already hard for the throngs of people to actually take their places. Coveted space in ticketed areas filled up fast, and even in the dark the Capitol Police complained that too many tickets were handed out and began turning people away.
By 9 a.m., hundreds of thousands kept warm with constant motion often peppered with chants of “Obama, Obama.” Others still trying to reach the Mall stood in never-before seen lines for the Metro, or in jam packed train cars.
Michael Bonsu, 37, a casino clerk in Atlantic City who emigrated to the U.S. from Ghana, made his first trip to Washington to witness the festivities and gigantic crowds
“I’m here to see my boy Obama,” he said. His entire family chipped in money from Africa and ordered Bonsu to be at the inaugural.
Marcus Woody, 59, a semi retired telecommunications worker from Reston, Va., described himself as a “civil rights worker from a time that’s hopefully past us.”
That he didn’t have tickets didn’t seem to worry him much.
“Its a special thing for us, I know a lot of people who really put a lot of effort into making this happen, its just tremendous,” Woody said. “And not only that but to mix with the people from all around the world that want us to be what we used to be and will be again.”
A fellow fighter for civil rights, Ruby Golding stood before the Lincoln Memorial 45 years ago and listened to Martin Luther King preach his dream of racial equality. Today, 82 years old and surrounded by blankets in a wheelchair, the Midland, Pa., native “wanted to be here to see part of the dream come true … Many died for this to happen,” she said. “Many people died before we could see our first black president.”
Examiner reporters Michael Neibauer, Susan Ferrechio, Bill Myers, Kaitlyn Funk, Lindsay Perna and Scott McCabe contributed to this story.
