WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Washington awoke Tuesday crowded and excited with the inauguration of a new president that's only a few hours away As many as 2 million people are expected to crowd into the area between the Capitol, the White House and the Lincoln Memorial as Barack Obama takes the oath of office at noon.
Some will be more than a mile from the swearing-in ceremony, watching on giant TV screens erected along the National Mall.
Thousands arrived before daylight Tuesday in standing-room-only trains. They carried blankets and wore Obama scarves to ward off the wind chills below 15 degrees Fahrenheit.
Suburban Washington train stations were jammed. A four-story parking deck at the Springfield, Virginia, station was filled at 5 a.m., CNN's Barbara Starr reported. But trains rolling into the stop about 15 miles south of the Capitol had no room for the hundreds on the platform, Starr reported.
"It is going to take a good, long while for people to get downtown," Starr said.
But just being among the crowd is good enough for many. more..http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/20/obama.inauguration/index.html
Some will be more than a mile from the swearing-in ceremony, watching on giant TV screens erected along the National Mall.
Thousands arrived before daylight Tuesday in standing-room-only trains. They carried blankets and wore Obama scarves to ward off the wind chills below 15 degrees Fahrenheit.
Suburban Washington train stations were jammed. A four-story parking deck at the Springfield, Virginia, station was filled at 5 a.m., CNN's Barbara Starr reported. But trains rolling into the stop about 15 miles south of the Capitol had no room for the hundreds on the platform, Starr reported.
"It is going to take a good, long while for people to get downtown," Starr said.
But just being among the crowd is good enough for many. more..http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/20/obama.inauguration/index.html
Obama
steps to the door of history
steps to the door of historyWASHINGTON - Barack Obama steps into history by becoming the United States' first black president Tuesday, bringing a message of hope to a nation battered by recession, weary of war and hungry for change after eight years of George W. Bush in the White House.
With the national holiday honoring slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. falling on the eve of the inauguration, America's troubled racial history was in the spotlight.
Obama's inauguration represents a milestone once unthinkable in a nation that has struggled with racial issues since its founding and where segregation was practiced in many Southern states just decades ago. It will take place outside the U.S. Capitol, which slaves helped build. Obama will take his oath on the same Bible used at the 1861 inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, whose Emancipation Proclamation ended slavery. more..http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28745226/
With the national holiday honoring slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. falling on the eve of the inauguration, America's troubled racial history was in the spotlight.
Obama's inauguration represents a milestone once unthinkable in a nation that has struggled with racial issues since its founding and where segregation was practiced in many Southern states just decades ago. It will take place outside the U.S. Capitol, which slaves helped build. Obama will take his oath on the same Bible used at the 1861 inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, whose Emancipation Proclamation ended slavery. more..http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28745226/
Security tight, movement slow on Inauguration Day
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Hundreds of thousands of visitors to the National Mall crowded Metro stations around Washington on Tuesday, slowing movement to a crawl after the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States."All of our stations are overcrowded," said Lisa Farbstein, spokeswoman for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. "It's taking hours for people to get back into the stations."
Police were holding people outside some Metro stations until there was room for them to get in, Farbstein said.
But as evening fell and celebrations moved indoors, observers said crowd flow on the Metro system was smoother, if still an effort in patience.
As of 7 p.m. Tuesday, the Metro had counted 973,285 passenger trips, setting a record with several hours and many miles yet to go.
"Throughout the weekend, we've effectively dealt with record-breaking crowds," said Metro General Manager John Catoe. "By 5 p.m., people had taken nearly 874,000 trips, breaking yesterday's ridership record with nine more hours of service to go."
Monday's 866,681 passenger trips had been the Metro record.
The Metro numbers were just one record-setting tally in a day that lived up to expectations in sheer crowd ,on the National Mall were so large that the National Park Service began closing portions of it by 9 a.m., three hours before Obama took his oath of office.
A crowd of 1.5 million people packed the Mall for the inauguration, according to an analysis of satellite imagery provided to CNN by IHS Jane's, a leading information provider on defense, international risk and national security.
Officials said the massive security for the event was running smoothly, although there had been what they described as minor miscommunications, such as a Metro station entrance being closed when it was not supposed to be. The crowd was orderly, and there had been no reports of major incidents or concerns.
FBI spokesman Jason Pack said there had been no arrests related to the inauguration so far. FBI and partner agencies investigated about a dozen reports of suspicious incidents or people, but none was anything serious.
About 957 people visited the medical tents on the mall for various first-aid needs.
Some security screening lines ran slowly, officials said, but there had not been any major systemic problems.
Earlier in the day, federal officials were reviewing an unspecified threat to disrupt the inauguration, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
The FBI was investigating two "streams of intelligence" suggesting that Somalia-based terrorist organization Al Shabaab may have been plotting an attack timed to coincide with the event, the FBI and Homeland Security said in a joint threat advisory obtained by CNN. more..http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/20/inaugural.security/index.html?iref=topnews
Police were holding people outside some Metro stations until there was room for them to get in, Farbstein said.
But as evening fell and celebrations moved indoors, observers said crowd flow on the Metro system was smoother, if still an effort in patience.
As of 7 p.m. Tuesday, the Metro had counted 973,285 passenger trips, setting a record with several hours and many miles yet to go.
"Throughout the weekend, we've effectively dealt with record-breaking crowds," said Metro General Manager John Catoe. "By 5 p.m., people had taken nearly 874,000 trips, breaking yesterday's ridership record with nine more hours of service to go."
Monday's 866,681 passenger trips had been the Metro record.
The Metro numbers were just one record-setting tally in a day that lived up to expectations in sheer crowd ,on the National Mall were so large that the National Park Service began closing portions of it by 9 a.m., three hours before Obama took his oath of office.
A crowd of 1.5 million people packed the Mall for the inauguration, according to an analysis of satellite imagery provided to CNN by IHS Jane's, a leading information provider on defense, international risk and national security.
Officials said the massive security for the event was running smoothly, although there had been what they described as minor miscommunications, such as a Metro station entrance being closed when it was not supposed to be. The crowd was orderly, and there had been no reports of major incidents or concerns.
FBI spokesman Jason Pack said there had been no arrests related to the inauguration so far. FBI and partner agencies investigated about a dozen reports of suspicious incidents or people, but none was anything serious.
About 957 people visited the medical tents on the mall for various first-aid needs.
Some security screening lines ran slowly, officials said, but there had not been any major systemic problems.
Earlier in the day, federal officials were reviewing an unspecified threat to disrupt the inauguration, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
The FBI was investigating two "streams of intelligence" suggesting that Somalia-based terrorist organization Al Shabaab may have been plotting an attack timed to coincide with the event, the FBI and Homeland Security said in a joint threat advisory obtained by CNN. more..http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/20/inaugural.security/index.html?iref=topnews
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