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Women’s marches draw estimated 3M people across US

by Reid Wilson - 01/21/17 8:02 PM ET

At least 3 million people participated in marches across the country to protest President Trump on Saturday, according to a review of official and unofficial estimates from the nation’s largest cities.

Half a million people showed up on the National Mall and nearby streets for the Women’s March on Washington, according to city officials, for an event that spurred similar demonstrations in several major cities.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority said nearly 600,000 people had used the capital’s Metro system by 4 p.m., ridership that eclipsed not only Friday’s inauguration of Trump, but also the 2013 inauguration, when Barack Obama was sworn in to a second term.

{mosads}New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office said Saturday night that at least 400,000 had protested in Manhattan, while organizers in Boston and Chicago each claimed to have some of the largest turnout in the nation.

Police officials said more than 100,000 people showed up at Boston Common. In Chicago, where organizers estimated 250,000 protesters showed up, officials cited safety concerns in canceling the actual marching portion of the rally after an overflow crowd arrived in Grant Park.

But the crowd that showed up in Los Angeles’s Pershing Square is likely to rival even the numbers on the National Mall. The Los Angeles Police Department said Saturday it is still working on an official estimate, but the department said it was the largest protest they had seen since a rally for immigration reform in 2006.

That march drew an estimated 500,000 people, the Los Angeles Times reported. Organizers on Saturday estimated some 750,000 people showed up, though those were not official numbers.

Organizers of marches in Seattle, Denver and Portland all claimed more than 100,000 attendees. Police officials in Madison, Wis., said between 75,000 and 100,000 showed up to rally at the state capital, while a smaller demonstration took place in Milwaukee.

Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), the civil rights icon who clashed with Trump last week, addressed a crowd police estimated at 60,000 in Atlanta. Another 90,000 or more rallied in St. Paul; a police department spokesman told the St. Paul Pioneer-Press it was the largest crowd the Twin Cities had seen since the 2008 Republican National Convention.

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney’s office said 50,000 people marched peacefully down the Ben Franklin Parkway. Forty thousand marched in San Diego, and at least 85,000 participated in marches in the Bay Area cities of San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose. A crowd of 50,000 marched on the Texas state capital in Austin.

Events in Houston and Phoenix drew 20,000 participants. Marches in Tucson, Sacramento, Kansas City, New Orleans, Charlotte, Nashville, Raleigh, Miami and Olympia, Wash., attracted more than 10,000 demonstrators each, according to local news reports and police estimates.

Around the world, demonstrators marched at 637 different protests, according to organizers for the event in Washington.

– Aida Chavez contributed research.

Updated: 9:41 p.m.

Tags Barack Obama Women's March