Courtesy of Flickr user jeffreylowy
Editor’s note: Sure, everyone with a television, radio or Internet connection knew how the 44th inaugural ceremony played out nearly one year ago. Here’s how things went down for Penguin staffers on that frigid January morning.
To bear witness to history, one must wake at some ungodly hour for the best seat. Silver Spring resident Elizabeth Buie was already at the Silver Spring Metro station by 4:55 a.m. and reported via Twitter that Red Line cars were packed.
@ebuie: Just left Silver Spring station. Standing room only. Here we go! — 4:55 AM Tuesday from mobile web
Penguins don’t rise that early, so staffers hit the streets just before 7:00 a.m., along with everyone else in the hood. The first order of business that morning: acquire nosh.
@sspenguin: getting early start on New Dawn in America, along with everyone else on line at Einstein Bros Bagels. #inaug09 — 6:52 AM yesterday from mobile web
The small Colesville Road bagel shop was slammed with people looking to score a predawn carbo fix. Customers waited (and waited) patiently, but the cashiers were less forgiving. They threw sneers at their listless food-prep colleague, who scrambled orders when she didn’t forget them entirely.
Fifteen minutes later, Penguin staffers bum rushed the Silver Spring Metro station, shoving aside tourists who insisted on riding the left side of the escalator. (Oofah! People, please don’t test my inner New Yorker!) Red Line cars were packed towards the center of the platform, but the train’s tail end offered some breathing room.
At the Fort Totten station, staffers hustled for the Green Line connection. And that’s when this announcement warbled over the public-address system:
@sspenguin: Red Line delays toward Shady Grove; problems toward Glenmont cleared. — 7:16 AM yesterday from mobile web
Tough break for late risers. On the other hand, Penguin staffers were already rocking the Green Line towards L’Enfant Plaza, where the ticketless masses could access the National Mall. Eat it, Red Liners!
That strident arrogance would come back to bite the Penguins in the ass — hard. The Green Line lurched, then stalled completely, between the Convention Center station and L’Enfant Plaza. When the doors finally opened at L’Enfant Plaza, this greeted the Penguins:
Many of the station’s exits appeared to be closed, leaving zillions to flood the D Street exit. No one moved through the turnstiles, yet one Green Line train after the next continued to deposit more people onto the jammed platform.
@sspenguin: L’Enfant Pl station is JAMMED! MPD trying to pace crowd thru exit. Expect major delays; some people turning around. #inaug09 — 8:16 AM yesterday from mobile web
Some in the crowd began chanting “Yes, we can!” and “O-ba-ma!” to keep spirits high, though one Fairfax woman admitted she feared a stampede for the exit. On the flip side, extra-early birds who had been on the Mall as early as 2:00 a.m. wriggled deeper into the station. After six hours of waiting in below-freezing temperatures, they said they’d had enough and were headed home.
Soon, another chant rose from the crowd: “Medic!”
@sspenguin: Woman needs med attn @ L’Enfant Pl, D St exit. #inaug09 — 8:32 AM yesterday from mobile web
A 50-ish woman in a jogging suit sat on the tiled station floor, her legs spread out before her. Strangers held each of her arms to keep her from falling over, and another dropped some newspaper to collect the sick woman’s vomitus.
A man in what appeared to be a police officer’s cap pushed his way forward to help, yelling, “Make a hole! Make a hole!” (He turned out to be a member of the military.) Meanwhile, the crowd continued to chant “Medic! Medic!” in an attempt to alert police and TSA officers keeping tabs on the crowd.
Just as a law-enforcement officer began to squirm from the front of the pack towards the sick woman, station attendants opened the turnstiles, triggering a tidal wave of exit-bound people. What became of the sick woman is unknown.
Once past the turnstiles, the Penguins climbed the escalators to D Street.
@sspenguin: Total time to exit L’Enfant Pl station: 1 hour. — 8:56 AM yesterday from mobile web
Read the rest of this story here.
Photo of the L’Enfant Plaza Metro station by J. Deseo/SSP.
Originally published Jan 20, 2009.
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The AFI was packed. The linkup to the live coverage was provided by TV One, a local cable channel that “serves” the African-American community.
I’ll be devastatingly blunt…their coverage was appallingly amateurish and disrespectful. Their hosts TALKED THROUGH MOST OF THE CEREMONY. We never heard Dianne Feinstein’s voice, half of Biden’s oath, and the beginning of the poem. They TALKED through the entire performance by the classical quartet. In a crowning irony, they remarked how lovely the music was, even though they weren’t letting the audience hear it.
There were almost continual complaints from the audience about how the hosts would just not shut up. I was afraid at first that I was just an uptight white guy, but the black family next to me were even more irate than I was. TV One’s job of covering the inauguration was a disgrace and an insult. I’m firing off an angry letter to them and I encourage everyone else who was there to do so as well.
It was so cold. I was there. It was cold. So cold. Cold.
The only proper way to watch these events is C-Span.
Sligo is right on. C-Span is blissfully free of pundits, zealots, gasbags, and pompous anchors/reporters explaining to me what I’m seeing.
I’m surprised AFI didn’t go with a CSPAN broadcast. They wouldn’t have had to pay for the broadcast license, methinks.
The man next to me ran to the managers and asked if they could switch to CNN or something, but was turned down; they had a contract with TV One.
I’ll be interested to see if I get a response to my letter to TV One. They really dropped the ball.
I guess we got there early enough to miss the chaos at L’Enfant. We transferred from the crowded red line at Fort Totten and the 6 of us all got seats on the green train to L’Enfant. Of course then we stodd with thousands of other people for 9 hours but all in all I can’t complain.
C-span is the only way to go! The networks/cable news organizations ruin the event with their endless commenting & commenting as well as the split screens and the animated “headline” bar at the bottom of the screen. CNN went one step further with a timeline running on the right side of the screen. It got so annoying that it was a pleasure to watch standard-def C-span on my high def tv just to get away from the distractions.
We watched MSNBC because of Rachel Maddow’s presence, and all in all they did a pretty good job, even if it wasn’t HD.
Vagrarian, I’m surprised there wasn’t a riot in the Silver Theater. That sounds horrible. I hate to say this, but the classical music (Yo Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, et al) was beautiful. Are you sure you didn’t stumble into the Majestic’s screening instead?
I caught CNN’s coverage of the parade once I got home. Someone needs to tell Wolf Blitzer to shut the fuck up — it’s nonstop blah, blah, blah with that guy.
It sounds like everything on the south side of The Mall was a disaster. We stayed north, exiting via Metro Center and walking to The Mall entrance at 18th St. We got on the Metro in Wheaton @ 5:00am and were standing in the middle of The Mall near 9th St. at exactly 7:00am. That includes stopping at Starbucks for coffee/breakfast. For some reason they wouldn’t let anyone cross 7th Street even though that section of The Mall was fairly empty. If they had let us cross, we could have easily been a few blocks closer.
Getting off The Mall at the end of the day via 14th Street was a disaster though.
I was at Forest Glen Metro at 3:30 Am- they forgot about their own rule- cash only for parking and had no change- so they kept a long line of cars waiting until 4:15 Am. I got on the red line around 4:30- seats available and switched to the Green Line at Fort Totten- seats available- getting out at L’enfant around 5:10 Am was tough- riders taking pictures of the crowd in the station. I was on the mall until 1:30 PM(as a volunteer) and eventually came home via Farrguat North at 5:30 PM- emptier than on a work day.