On January 20, 2017 Donald J. Trump was inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States. The event took place in front of the west side of the Capitol building facing the National Mall. It attracted a huge audience. According to reports, the number of spectators at the event totaled several hundred thousand. I was one of those spectators. This is my story.

Earlier in the week I decided to attend Mr. Trump’s inauguration. My goal: to personally witness and be a part of a unique historical event. I had watched inaugurations on television and read about them, but never attended one. According to the official inauguration website, tickets were not required to attend. Initially I planned to travel to DC by train, but I received a text message from Amtrak alerting that parts of Union Station would be closed. So I decided to fly instead. Normally I would have flown to DC the night before, in this case on January 19, but could not find a hotel anywhere in DC that had not tripled their price for a room, so I decided to make the trip to DC a one-day affair.

Taking off from LaGuardia Airport (video length 4:01): https://youtu.be/yNzmmUT6qlw

Landing at Reagan Airport ( video length 8:59): https://youtu.be/olgXeiyFwqY

At 6:00 AM I took a bus from midtown Manhattan to LaGuardia Airport, I departed from LaGuardia Airport at 8 AM and arrived at Reagan Airport at 9:29 AM. From Reagan I planned to take the DC Metro to L’Enfant Plaza near the National Mall but due to the long lines at the card dispenser machines I could not quickly purchase a Smartrip card. So instead I took a taxi to the Navy Yard Metro station in DC, perhaps a mile away from the Mall. From there I took the Metro to L’Enfant. I arrived at approximately 10:15 AM. The Mall was short distance away. The swearing in ceremony was scheduled for 12 Noon, so I figured I had enough time to get make it to the Mall on time to witness the swearing in ceremony and the President’s inaugural address. I figured wrong. Upon exiting the station I saw a long line of people. They were on line waiting for tickets. Unable to ascertain the exact length of the line or how long I would have to wait to get a ticket, I left the area and walked east to the security entrance set up at 3rd Street. Access there was restricted to those with tickets. Not having a ticket, I left.

Below: Police barricade blocking off a street. Note the use of public buses as barricades. Security was tight. At least four police cars were assigned to this one intersection alone.

At this point, let me describe the security arrangements for the inauguration. It must be kept in mind that the inauguration was being held in front of a gigantic park, the National Mall, that normally is completely open to the public, and that in addition to President Trump and his family four former US Presidents and their First Ladies were present at the ceremony as well. Hence, security was tight. On January 20, access to the Mall was completely closed off. That was accomplished through the use of portable metal fences that were approximately 7-feet high. These fences were deployed at strategic places throughout the area and were used to control the flow of pedestrian traffic into and out of the Mall. As I was soon to find out, this so-called “enhanced security” arrangement was employed as far away as a mile from the actual location of the swearing-in ceremony.

Below: a small section of the “enhanced security” fence. Not surprisingly, the area on the other side of the fence is devoid of people. The Capital Building is in the background.

The same “enhanced security” measures were also employed on the Mall itself. Steel fences crossing the Mall were used to keep the crowd separated into sections. Security was provided by local and federal police backed up by thousands of soldiers in combat uniforms. Hence, the area around the Mall acquired the appearance of a war zone. This had a chilling effect on the event itself. It should be noted the crowd itself was well behaved, orderly, generally quiet and peaceful. The only disruptive behavior I saw came from anti-Trump demonstrators.

Below: Enhanced security fences on the Mall. These fences were used to control the crowd and prevented many people from entering the Mall. This pic was taken after the swearing-in ceremony.

Now back to my story. Not being able to enter the Mall at 3rd Street, I asked a police officer where I could enter the Mall without a ticket and the officer directed me to go to 7th Street. When I arrived at 7th Street there was another long line. As with the previous line, it was impossible to ascertain the line’s actual length or the approximate waiting time. However, I had no choice but to get on the line and hope for the best. (In this case, my hopes proved futile.) It was also impossible to ascertain the exact cause for why the line seemed to moving so slowly. Any rate, suffice it to say that eventually I discovered the cause of the delay – a security checkpoint that was creating a bottleneck. By the time I made it through the checkpoint and onto the Mall, at a spot which was at least a half-mile away from the Capital Building, President Trump was concluding his address. I traveled to Washington, DC, waited on line for at least one and half hours to personally witness the swearing-in ceremony and Mr. Trump’s inaugural address, but through no fault of my own missed those events. However, I did participate in the singing of the National Anthem and witnessed President Obama leaving the Mall in a helicopter. Mr. Obama’s departure was greeted with friendly applause, with many people waving goodbye. At no time did I hear anyone say anything critical, derogatory or inflammatory about Mr. Obama or Hillary Clinton.

The singing of the National Anthem (video length 1:30): https://youtu.be/8l0CJXkr014

People waiting on line to enter the Mall ( video length 0:15): https://youtu.be/AeMCpUJ6qto

Below: people waiting on line to enter the Mall. Access to the Mall was strictly controlled, creating a bottleneck.

However, the story does not end here. After President Obama exited the Mall, many people, myself included, started walking toward 7th Street to exit. The same checkpoint that created the bottleneck to enter the Mall now created a new bottleneck, this time in the reverse direction. The security checkpoint and the metal fences prevented people from readily leaving. To avoid this bottleneck, I walked west to the next security checkpoint at 12th Street. At that spot there were considerably fewer people and the fence was open. As I was preparing to walk through the opening, a group of anti-Trump protestors showed up and security began to close the fence. At that point, it was either go through the opening now or still be trapped in the Mall area. So I quickly ran through the gate, which then closed behind me. That is how I finally left the Mall.

Below: people waiting on line to exit the Mall. Exiting the event was a struggle. Note the two soldiers at the center right of the pic. Soldiers were deployed throughout the entire area.

Afterwards, I walked east toward L’Enfant Plaza. After consuming a snack at a nearby food mall that was packed with Trump supporters (and where I also had a pleasant conversation with a food server who was from Romania) I took the Metro from L’Enfant Plaza back to Reagan Airport where I boarded a 7:30 PM flight back to JFK airport, I arrived at JFK at 9:00 PM, and from there took a bus back to Manhattan. About 45 minutes later I arrived at Grand Central Terminal, and from GCT walked to my residence. Thus ended my one-day whirlwind odyssey. It had lasted approximately sixteen hours. Within that time frame I took two plane trips, two bus rides, one taxi ride, one train ride, stood for hours on a long line, stood in the middle of the National Mall, and did a considerable amount of walking. This personal odyssey, like Mr. Trump’s inauguration, which I traveled to DC to witness and missed, was now in the past. Later on, I would watch the swearing-in ceremony and President Trump’s speech on the news, but I could have done that without having gone to DC.

Below: anti-Trump demonstrators. They were noisy but peaceful. Note the hurricane fence in the middle of the street used to control crowd flow.

Yet, the trip was not entirely a waste of my time and money. I can honestly say that I was in DC for the inauguration and that I was part of a broader historical event, and even if I didn’t personally witness the actual swearing-in ceremony, I was present at the venue on the day when it occurred.

Regarding the size of crowd, it is impossible to arrive at a precise figure. However, I would caution not to rely exclusively on aerial photographs of the Mall to estimate the number of persons who were at the event. The “enhanced security” measures prevented a lot of people, probably numbering many thousands, from gaining access to the Mall.