At 8 a.m. crowds stretched down the Mall as far as the eye could see from the third floor of the Capitol.
An hour earlier, long lines of ticket holders to the swearing-in ceremony stood by the Senate terrace on the corners of Louisiana Ave. and D Street and Delaware Ave. and D Street, outside the Russell Senate Office Building.
Already at 6:30 a.m. crowds had clogged Chinatown, making the intersection of 7th and E Streets impassable.
One radio reporter who surveyed the crowds from the Senate Radio and TV Gallery estimated nearly a million people on the Mall three and a half hours before Barack Obama was scheduled to take the oath of office.
The hallways of the Capitol, however, were nearly deserted, as congressional officials had put in place tight restrictions on media and visitors. Some staff decided to avoid the crowds by sleeping overnight in the Capitol, leaving folded cots in various rooms on the Senate’s third floor.
-Alexander Bolton