The crowds were large but nowhere near as massive as they were four years ago, when Obama was first sworn in. As of 10 a.m., Metro said 266,000 riders had entered its rail system, compared with 473,000 riders who had entered at the same time in 2009.
Police and National Guard officials said pedestrian traffic around the monumental core mostly was moving without incident, although a few glitches were reported.
Metro station parking facilities filled up throughout the morning, and some stations near the Mall were overflowing, even though federal workers and many others had the day off for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
On the Mall, the non-ticketed public viewing area east of Seventh Street was full as of 9:34 a.m. and closed to additional visitors, U.S. Park Police said. There was still room further west. As the 11:30 a.m. start time for the festivities approached, throngs of well-wishers rushed through security checkpoints, eager to claim a place to stand.
Obama and his family attended services at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Lafayette Square before arriving at the Capitol and greeting a crowd of reporters and staff by the Senate entrance.
“I miss this place,” the former Illinois senator said.
Members of Congress and other VIPs took their seats on the inaugural stage — senators stage left, and representatives, stage right — and did what mere mortals for blocks around were doing as well: taking photos of themselves. Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), an avid photographer, snapped pictures of his colleague, Sen. Debbie Stabbenow (D-Mich.) at the presidential podium. Over among House lawmakers, House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) captured a few images of the crowd and his colleagues, while Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) took pictures of Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) who wanted a shot of himself in front of the stage crowd.
In one row, from left to right, sat former president Bill Clinton, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, former president Jimmy Carter and former first lady Rosalynn Carter — next to Caroline Smedvig, and her husband, singer James Taylor, who will perform at the ceremony.
A short time earlier, in the green ticket area near Second and C streets SW, several people left in frustration, declaring that the area was too crowded and there was no way to actually see the ceremony.
Brian and Ruth Cantwell, from Palo Alto, Calif., gave away their tickets outside the gate and said they would head to the Mall, hoping to get a spot near a Jumbotron or along the parade route..
“You couldn’t really move,” Brian Cantwell said. “When you get in there and try to get access to get to a view, you end up in a gridlock situation.”
A security checkpoint at Seventh and D streets NW opened more than 90 minutes late, after the waiting crowd had swelled to more than 1,000. At least two other checkpoints also stayed close well past the scheduled opening time of 6:30 a.m. The Secret Service could not immediate give a reason for the delay.
“It wasn’t us. It was the Inaugural Committee,” said one Secret Service officer at Seventh and D, who asked not to be identified because officers were not authorized to speak to the media. “We’ve been ready to go since 4:30 a.m.”
Mostly, however, the atmosphere was one of celebration and appreciation, with many in attendance saying they were especially moved to be able to watch the nation’s first black president take the oath on the King memorial holiday.
A predominantly African American crowd gathered in front of the Smithsonian castle, cheering, waving flags, taking pictures and watching videos on the Jumbotron as accompanying music played at an ear-splitting volume. A National Park Service employee handed out Obama buttons. “You already paid for ’em,” he said.
On the grass, Sandra and Ronnie Robinson of Birmingham, Ala., set up folding chairs to watch the ceremony. Ronnie Robinson, 54, said he was in first grade when the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham was bombed by white supremacists. Four little girls were killed.
Attending Obama’s inauguration on Martin Luther King Day, he said, “is the culmination to the dream. If we’re ever going to get close to the dream, this is as close as we’re going to get.”
Like the Robinsons, Katherine Ward, a Naval officer, was attending an inauguration for the first time. Ward, who is also African American, said she was serving in Iraq when Obama first took office. “Now I’m here to cheer him on,” she said. “Everything Martin Luther King marched for and spoke on has come true.”
Dozens of disabled and elderly people, dropped off by tour buses at RFK Stadium, waited for free shuttles downtown that were scheduled to come every 30 minutes. They were being taken to Seventh Street and Frontage Road, about a half-mile from the Mall.
“They’re backed up. . . . You would have thought they would have put more buses out,” said Minniett Westbrook, 74, of Covington, Ga. “But it’s well worth the wait.”
The inaugural ceremony will begin on the steps of the Capitol about 11:30 a.m. with musical selections from the Marine Corps Band, followed by a welcome from Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and an invocation by civil rights activist Myrlie Evers-Williams.
After Vice President Biden and Obama take their oaths, the president will deliver his second inaugural address, a speech that advisers said will emphasize the importance of seeking common ground and encouraging Americans to engage in the political process.
Because the Constitution mandates Jan. 20 as the inauguration date, Obama and Biden were sworn into office in private ceremonies Sunday. But the public inaugural festivities, bathed in pomp and circumstance, offer them and the nation a chance to take stock, breathe deep and contemplate the promise and peril of the next four years.
The District’s director of homeland security told the Associated Press early Monday that the city is expecting crowds of between 500,000 and 700,000 people — significantly fewer than the estimated 1 million to 1.8 million who attended Obama’s 2009 swearing in.
In parts of downtown, metro stations were much less crowded than they would be on a regular weekday morning. But the stations closest to the Mall were overflowing with passengers.
The Federal Center SW station, which is supposed to be used only by those with inaugural tickets, was so crowded that several trains bypassed the stop at various points. In an attempt to slow the flow of passengers to the fare gates, Metro at one point turned off the only set of escalators leading from the platform to the station, so people would have to climb the stairs.
Despite repeated warnings from Metro about buying and loading SmarTrip cards in advance, the line at each Farecard machine at the New Carrollton station was 12 deep by 8 a.m. Men in yarmulkes waited behind Navy officers in dress uniforms, who were behind African American women in fur coats, who stood behind families with small children.
Many roadways, in contrast, were virtually empty.
Scattered protests were reported along the parade route and in the hours leading up to the festivities. Up to 60 anti-government activists, some wearing masks and carrying signs, damaged automated bank machines and a restaurant in Mount Vernon area of downtown late Sunday and early Monday, according to D.C. police.
In one case, police said the vandals left anti-government literature behind. “We’re looking at all avenues affiliated with anarchist groups,” said Officer Araz Alali, a D.C. police spokesman. “We’re taking this very seriously.”
Alali said police will “maintain a heavy presence monitoring the situation” in the area. No arrests had been made as of Monday morning.
Reston resident Holly Wieland and her sister Pam Joslin, visiting from their home state of Arkansas, started their day by visiting slain civil rights leaders’s memorial on the Mall, after reading King’s “Letter from the Birmingham Jail.” As the sun rose, Wieland, 57, talked about Arkansas’s battle to overcome its segregated past.
“It’s a stain on the state,” she said. “I’m so happy that we have made so much progress, but we still have so far to go. . . . Being here is a profound way to start the day.”
Sandra Davis Funk — who, like Wieland and Joslin, is white — also stopped at the memorial to reflect. “If it weren’t for Martin Luther King, President Obama wouldn’t be president today,” said Funk, 63, of Malvern, Pa. “We certainly owe a debt to him.”
Robbie Dancy, who was on the Mall near Seventh Street, said crowds and cold were not going to keep her from making the journey from Utica, N.Y. “I was here 50 years ago for Martin Luther King’s March on Washington,” Dancy, 71, said. “I feel really blessed to see this happen in my lifetime.”
Strangers who passed Dancy, Brenda Harmon and Jill Bryant on the Mall couldn’t help but smile, make a comment or snap a photo. The trio, decked in sunglasses and hats adorned with studded images of Obama, sat on a large folded piece of cardboard leaning against a large tree, a makeshift love seat, if you will. One, with a pink Coach bag beside her, wore a full-length mink coat.
“Y’all doing it luxury style,” said one man as he snapped a photo.
“All you need is a roof,” said another passerby.
Dancy, 71, laughed and said: “We did have a roof. We broke it down.”
On North Capitol Street, one middle-aged woman sported a cowboy hat and a sweatshirt that bore Obama’s face and an image of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, with the simple message: “Hillary 2016.”
Iris Murdock, 62, a retired school teacher from Baltimore, began the journey to her first presidential inauguration well before dawn, driving to her daughter’s home in Hyattsville. There, the two women boarded a Green Line train.
They emerged at Federal Center before 7 a.m., when it was still dark. White lights twinkled on nearby trees as the gathering crowd bundled up against the cold.
“This was on my bucket list,” said Murdock, snug in a long coat and mittens. “You live in Baltimore, and it’s a hop, skip and a jump away.”
Murdock supports Obama, but she sees the inauguration as bigger than that. “It doesn’t matter what political party you are, it’s part of being an American,” she said. “You stand in line to vote. You have to see what the rest of it is like too.”
As she talked, a group of middle-schoolers trooped past her, carrying souvenir-size flags and composition books. A smile spread across her face.
“I’m a retired educator,” she said, beaming. “Look at them.”
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