This time with pictures

Finally added some pictures to my inauguration post. Here’s the Washington Post’s take:

At least 4,000 people with coveted blue or purple tickets to the presidential inauguration were blocked from entering the U.S. Capitol grounds yesterday because too many tickets were distributed, entry procedures bogged down and security officials were overwhelmed by surging crowds at several gates.

“Apparently we just could not get them all screened in time, and so we were a bit overwhelmed by the numbers,” said Senate Sergeant at Arms Terrance W. Gainer. “Four to 5,000 people were discombobulated. There were another 236,000 who were very happy with the service.”

Many disappointed and angry ticket holders complained that they had arrived early and patiently inched toward their goal all morning, only to end up among frustrated mobs, clamoring outside shut gates just as President Barack Obama (D) was about to be sworn in. Others said they lost precious time wandering among mazes of barricades.

“We stood, and we stood, and we went nowhere. By the end, people were shouting and pushing,” said District resident Marion Goldin, 68. “We waited until we heard them playing ‘Hail to the Chief,’ and then we knew it was too late. Those tickets were so sacred to us, and we never even got close.”

Some people said they were stuck for up to four hours in the Third Street tunnel, where there was little security or official guidance. The slow-moving lines of ticket holders grew more chaotic and confused as the morning wore on. Before 11 a.m., one man said, they emerged to see locked gates where they had expected to enter.

I’d bet there were closer to 10,000 ticketholders denied entrance, and from what it sounded like at the time, people in the blue areas at the south end of the Capitol suffered similar problems, just on a much smaller scale.