Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

By Karen Lee Ziner
Journal staff writer

Ryan Simmons, an American University student from Barrington, made it to the Washington Monument area and watched the swearing-in of Presdient Obama ]on the giant video screens.

There were equipment problems, and about a 10-second voice lag.

And, "the police were doing a really poor job of doing things. They were really poor at crowd control. Barriers were set up in such a way that it would create all these bottlenecks - there'd be people staring at each other saying, 'You move,' 'no you move,' 'You move," and they [police] would just stand there and laugh. Besides that, everything was really good ... the crowds were absolutely mind-bogglingly huge."

"After the swearing-in, as far as you could see, there were gigantic crowds everywhere. You had to push your way through."

And, he said, "at the big field, where the Jumbotrons were, every time they showed Obama and Biden, there was unanimous cheering. Anything time they showed Bush or Cheney, they had unanimous booing."

Simmons said he and his friends decided to leave when the parade was delayed because they were concerned that the Metro, the Washington, D.C., subway system, would be too crowded. Only when he returned to his dormitory did he learn that the delay resulted from Senator Ted Kennedy's collapse during the inaugural luncheon.

R.I. student in D.C. says Mall 'completely packed'
11:22 a.m.

Ryan Simmons, of Barrington, is a junior at American University. He is with eight friends.

"It's pretty hectic. We got here around 5:30, and we were about half a block from a security checkpoint. It took us four hours to get through. We moved about a foot every 20 minutes. It was completely packed. There was no room to turn around. The mall was completely closed off. We're along the parade route."

Simmons heard that there are Jumbo-trons on 14th street and 3rd street, "but we can't get back out. The security checkpoints are completely clogged. They're insisting on herding everyone through three metal detectors, and they have 200,000 people going through. A couple of metal detectors have stopped working."

"There are snipers on every rooftop - they're very visible. Besides that, we managed to get in fairly early. Still there are thousands of people outside the security area, trying to get in."

"It's pretty cold. I didn't really notice it when we were waiting on line - there was so much body heat. But as soon as you get through the security line, [the temperature] drops about 10 degrees. It's an interesting experience."

R.I. student in D.C. needs game plan to reach inaugural

4:45 p.m., Monday

Ryan Simmons, a Bristol resident who attends American University, in Washington, said he and his friends are going to finalize their route to the inauguration over dinner tonight.

"Our plan is to wake up at 4 a.m. and put on 10 to 12 layers of clothes, and make our way to the parade route, and hopefully we'll be able to see something," said Simmons. But if yesterday's experience was any indication, it's going to be tough.

"It took at least twice as long getting onto the Metro," which generally takes 10 to 20 minutes, he said.

 Tags  crowds inauguration

Comments

Rhody said:

Slow news day?

Link | January 19, 2009 6:00 PM
Report Abuse

---

jef said:

People can't remember how to walk and it is the police's fault?

Link | January 20, 2009 5:36 PM
Report Abuse

---

Leave a comment

Please be civil. Vicious comments, personal attacks and profanity won't be published. Name and email are required; email address will not publish.

Name:

Email:

URL:  

Remember personal info?

Captcha:

Type the characters you see in the picture above.