Tuesday, January 20, 2009

6 hours to go ...

People are streaming onto the Mall in Washington, DC, while some have been camping out all night. The Metro trains are beginning to fill up, some Metro parking lots are already full. The temperature in DC is 20 degrees. By noon it's expected to be 30 degrees, with a wind chill of 10-15.

The street leading into New Carrollton Metro station is bumper to bumper, and the parking lot there is already full! A number of other lots are full as well!

Cars are prohibited, but people are walking across the bridges from Virginia into DC.

1,387 groups applied to be part of the Inaugural parade, more than twice as many as has ever applied before -- only 100 groups were selected.

Extra cell phone towers have been brought in to handle the expected flood of calls and text messages that will originate from the Mall today. People are being asked to not send photos, for fear the high volume will crash the system.

This is a very exciting day!