DC 9/12 - CROWD SCENES AND COMMENTS

We arrived at the Vienna/Fairfax Metro station, the western terminus of the Orange line, about 11 am. Since we were late, we didn't expect much of a crowd.

Surprise! the parking garage was at least 2/3 full (on Saturday? Never) and the line to get on the train was at least 100 yards outside the station. After an hour, we finally boarded a packed train.


By the time we arrived in Washington, nearly 2 pm, the march down Pennsylvania Avenue was over - only stragglers and latecomers were still on the sidewalks. It was almost a normal Saturday along the street.


This photo was taken as we were nearing the National Mall approaching the Capitol building. It was still relatively quiet, but we could see some crowding ahead of us.


Now approaching the protest site, we can see crowds ahead. The area reserved for the protest is still ahead of us, well beyond camera range.


Now we're joined the crowd. We're still several hundred yards from the reserved area, we're now well inside the crowd.


At this point, we're still in the "outer ring" of protestors. Crowd density is about the same no matter which direction we turned.


Finally! We've gone another hundred yards or so and have made it almost to ihe inside edge of the outer ring.


At last - the ares of the Capitol grounds reserved for the protest. It's so crowded inside that the Capitol Police are only allowing new arrivals inside as some of the protestors inside depart. It takes about 30 minutes of waiting before we're finally allowed inside, but at least we can (barely) hear the speakers from our waiting area.


Inside at last. We've finally made it to within about 100 yards of the speakers' podium. We can't see the speakers easily, but large-screen televisions and loudspeakers allow us to see and hear reasonably well. It's now about 3 pm, the scheduled end for the protest.


Close to 4 pm, the protest is finally over and people begin to exit. The Mississippi contingent (!) is outside the gate, waving good-bye to the protestors.


This is a view of the Capitol reflecting pool, taken about a half-hour after the protest officially ended. The perimeter of the pool is ringed with people, 2 and 3 deep in many places.


An hour afterward, these folks, from Connecticut as I recall, are sitting on the Mall waiting for their bus to take them back home. A long day for them.

How many people attended? I don't know. The estimates I've seen/heard ranged from a low of 50,000 to as high as 2.5 million. Fifty thousand is ridiculously low by any counting standard. We were never in a position to see all, or even most, of the crowd even though we moved around as much as was possible in the crush of people, but I'm sure we saw many more than 50,000 people.

Judging from the crowding on Metro and the number of buses we saw both at the Mall and the Metro stations, the minimum had to be several hundred thousand, and a million is probably high, though certainly not out of the question.

A final note. The attendees were mostly middle-aged and middle-class, typical of working Americans everywhere. Minorities were well-represented, though probably not in proportion to the general population. Everyone was extremely well-mannered; we neither saw nor heard any disruptions for the entire time we were there.

I've seen reports on other blogs remarking how clean the area was left. The reporters are correct. There was plenty of trash, but it was all deposited in the trash containers on site. The Park Service groundkeepers will have very little to do cleaning up.