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A historic moment unfolds in frigid temps
2009-01-20
WASHINGTON - A vast, excited crowd of more than 1 million bore witness Tuesday to a transfer of American power like none before it. The blare of regal trumpets and thunder of cannon were familiar. The transition from Republican to Democrat, and gray hair to dark, had happened before. Muzi.com News 10086710-1 (muzi.com)But this was white to black, a shattering of racial barriers finally made complete when Barack Obama made it through a bumbled oath-taking, delivered a momentous-by-definition speech and got back to being his unflappable self. Muzi.com News 10086710-2 (muzi.com) The Democrat who charged onto the national scene saying this was not a nation of red states and blue states, but the United States, became president while wearing a red tie, the Republican color. Muzi.com News 10086710-3 (muzi.com) Republican George W. Bush, president no more, wore a blue tie, the Democratic color. They embraced at the Capitol and walked out together. Muzi.com News 10086710-4 (muzi.com) "Everybody is behind him," said Mikki Hill, 26, who traveled from Winston-Salem, N.C., and marveled at the multiracial multitudes. "Everybody's come from as far as the Earth is wide." Muzi.com News 10086710-5 (muzi.com) So it seemed on a day when change and continuity marched together in a spectacle of pageantry and raw emotion. Muzi.com News 10086710-6 (muzi.com) A couple of hours after being sworn in, Obama and his wife, Michelle, got out of their armored limousine bearing the license plate USA 1 and strolled together down the middle of Pennsylvania Avenue, holding hands and waving during the spirited inaugural parade. People along the packed parade route screeched in greeting. Muzi.com News 10086710-7 (muzi.com) The racial milestone lent a deeply personal dimension for many in the crowds as well as a historical landmark for all. Muzi.com News 10086710-8 (muzi.com) "I've been real emotional all morning thinking about my grandmother and the heroes whose shoulders we stand on," said Lyshundria Houston, 34, here from Memphis, after more than 20 hours of travel. Houston, who is black, said: "They'd be so proud." Muzi.com News 10086710-9 (muzi.com) Energized by the moment, hordes clogged the scene, enduring below-freezing temperatures. Starting before dawn, with the Capitol bathed in lights, they streamed from jammed subway stations and thronged past parked buses, emergency vehicles and street vendors to Pennsylvania Avenue and the National Mall. Muzi.com News 10086710-10 (muzi.com) Ticket holders approaching the inaugural site filed through security sweeps in lines coiled like cinnamon rolls. Muzi.com News 10086710-11 (muzi.com) They cheered dignitaries as they came on to the inaugural stand at the Capitol. Obama walked quietly and with the merest stirring of a smile through the halls to his position on the stand and his place in history. Muzi.com News 10086710-12 (muzi.com) The crowd erupted in jubilation as he strode out. Muzi.com News 10086710-13 (muzi.com) Former Presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush, the latter walking haltingly with a cane, embraced. Muzi.com News 10086710-14 (muzi.com) Roland Pool, 47, a white social worker from Santa Fe., N.M., sized up the new president as "solid and up-front. He deals with a million people with a smile -- and stoicism, too." Muzi.com News 10086710-15 (muzi.com) Elizabeth Courtman, 24, who recently moved to Washington from southern Alabama and supported Republican John McCain for president, said she came away with something to tell her children and grandchildren some day. "There's no denying the spectacle," said Courtman, who is white. "Our generation has never seen anything like this." Muzi.com News 10086710-16 (muzi.com) The grace notes of the day were not shared by all. A wave of boos greeted the introduction of Bush and his outgoing vice president, Dick Cheney, who was in a wheelchair. "Na na na na, hey hey, goodbye," some people chanted. Muzi.com News 10086710-17 (muzi.com) Nor did everything go off without a hitch on the stand. Muzi.com News 10086710-18 (muzi.com) Chief Justice John Roberts got a phrase out of order when leading Obama in the Constitution's 35-word oath. That prompted a pregnant pause from Obama at the very brink of becoming president. Muzi.com News 10086710-19 (muzi.com) Bush and his wife, Laura, were soon out of town. At Andrews Air Force Base, Md., they boarded a plane -- no longer called Air Force One because he is no longer president -- waved and took off for Texas. Muzi.com News 10086710-20 (muzi.com) The White House Web site switched to Obama from Bush before the new president had concluded his inaugural address. Muzi.com News 10086710-21 (muzi.com) "Change has come to WhiteHouse.gov," said the first blog of the Obama team. Muzi.com News 10086710-22 (muzi.com) At the Capitol, a protective Plexiglas shield extended about two feet up from the balustrade around the speaker's platform for Obama's speech. Muzi.com News 10086710-23 (muzi.com) Muhammad Ali took his seat on the platform, as did actor John Cusack and director Steven Spielberg. Muzi.com News 10086710-24 (muzi.com) A huge cheer rose from the Mall as the image of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy flashed on jumbo TV screens showing the veteran Massachusetts Democrat, who is fighting brain cancer, heading toward his seat on the inauguration stand. Muzi.com News 10086710-25 (muzi.com) He later became ill at the congressional lunch with Obama and was taken to hospital. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said a "great crowd" including the president flocked to the stricken Kennedy him and tried to help. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, a longtime Kennedy friend, said it appeared to be a seizure but he was assured when the Massachusetts senator "flashed him the old Irish smile" getting into the ambulance. Muzi.com News 10086710-26 (muzi.com) The district fire department responded to dozens of calls from people falling down or complaining of the being cold, D.C. fire and EMS department spokesman Alan Etter said. About two dozen were hospitalized. Muzi.com News 10086710-27 (muzi.com) Etter said medical personnel were having trouble getting to people quickly around the mall because of the throngs of people, but he added that everyone who needed help has eventually received treatment. Muzi.com News 10086710-28 (muzi.com) By 4 a.m., lines of riders had already 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. Muzi.com News 10086710-29 (muzi.com) Streets around the Capitol quickly filled with people, and security checkpoints were mobbed. The cold registered at a frosty 25 degrees at late morning, rising to 28 at the time of the swearing-in. Muzi.com News 10086710-30 (muzi.com) Warming tents and other facilities on the Mall were late opening because traffic and crowds delayed staffers from reaching them. At one spot, 150 people waited to buy a cup of coffee. Muzi.com News 10086710-31 (muzi.com) A flea-market atmosphere prevailed on downtown streets, with white tents set up to sell Obama T-shirts and mugs as well as food, bottled water, snacks, scarves and footwarmers. The scent of grilled sausages and steaming Chinese food greeted those who walked toward the parade route, more than six hours before Obama would pass by. Muzi.com News 10086710-32 (muzi.com) As waves of people moved through security screenings they scrambled for prime viewing spots along Pennsylvania Avenue -- sitting on the curb, staking out plots of grass, or clambering on cold metal benches. Muzi.com News 10086710-33 (muzi.com) Real estate appraiser Denise Grandberry of St. Louis stood near the mall with her niece Murphy and daughter Nikki and talked about all the foreclosed homes she's seen in her work. "I've seen the remnants of peoples' lives," she said. "I have hope now and I think the nation has hope." Muzi.com News 10086710-34 (muzi.com) Some 410,000 people had entered Washington's Metro transit system by 9 a.m., an extraordinary number, transit officials said. "God Bless them, they came out in this weather," said Robyn Ahlstrom, a volunteer with the Presidential Inaugural Committee. Muzi.com News 10086710-35 (muzi.com) The joyous mood of many was tempered for some by delays and dashed expectations. Muzi.com News 10086710-36 (muzi.com) Alice Williams, a 51-year-old teacher of gifted children from Kansas City, Mo., had the coveted purple ticket that would place her in front of the Capitol, but got caught in the crowd bottleneck and was stuck a half mile away. Muzi.com News 10086710-37 (muzi.com) "We got blocked off; there was too much traffic and no guidance," she said forlornly. "I've been walking for an hour and a half. All I want to do is see my president sworn in." Muzi.com News 10086710-38 (muzi.com) The cold was also taking its toll. Muzi.com News 10086710-39 (muzi.com)
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