Huge crowds gather in D.C. for inauguration

WASHINGTON - The U.S. capital came to life well before dawn Tuesday, as out-of-towners and area residents alike overwhelmed mass transit and filled city streets to witness the swearing-in of  President-elect Barack Obama.As dawn broke, tens of thousands of people turned Washington's orderly grid of streets into a festive party scene, energized by the historic moment. Ready to endure below-freezing temperatures, they streamed up from subway stations and past parked buses, emergency vehicles and street vendors, bound for the National Mall lawn in front of the Capitol for the inauguration."This is the culmination of two years of work," said Obama activist Akin Salawu, 34, of Brooklyn, New York, who helped the candidate as a community organizer and Web producer. "We got on board when Obama was the little engine who could. He's like a child you've held onto. Now he's going out into the world." Security lines were long and daunting on Tuesday morning, according to reports from around the city, with people trying to get onto the Mall, onto the parade route and the ticket areas on the Capitol. Parking lots full By 4 a.m., lines of riders formed in suburban parking lots for the Metro transit system, which opened early and put on extra trains for the expected rush. Many parking lots filled up and had to be closed.Streets around the Capitol quickly filled with people, and security checkpoints were mobbed.Warming tents and other facilities on the Mall were late opening because traffic and crowds delayed staffers from reaching them.Ticket holders approaching the Inaugural site on Capitol Hill awaited security sweeps in a line estimated at thousands. People were in a festive mood, despite the cold and economic gloom that that has millions unemployed and tens of thousands homeless.Connie Grant of Birmingham, Alabama, said she got up at 3:30 a.m. after coming to Washington with a group. Three hours later she was still on 7th street waiting for police to clear the way into the Mall.She said the wait didn't matter. "I sacrificed and came here. To me, this is very historic. I just wanted to be here.""I brought my patience," said Matt Rohrbaugh, 37, who had traveled from Santa Cruz, Calif. with his two sons aged 12 and 15. "Everyone else seems to have brought their patience as well," he said, referring to the long lines at checkpoints. 'Dream come true 'Christian Alderson of Berryville, Virginia, said he was in Memphis, Tennessee when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. "That day was sorrowful," Alderson, 73, said as he stood near the mall. "This is a dream come true for me." CONTINUE READING...