More from the Women's March

Some of the bleacher. The glass building off to the right is the Newseum.

These pictures cover walking up 3rd Street and making the turn on to Constitution. The crowd built and built as the group I was in was joined by people who were walking up 4th Street. Then we were joined by the group walking up 5th and so on. Just more and more people joining.

Along the way some people stopped off at the bleachers that had been left up for the inaugural. It was a great place to rest. But it also afforded a great view of just how big the crowd was.

The long line of people in the distance are the marchers marching up 4th Street.

A closer view of the people on 4th Street.

Turning the corner on to Constitution

A view from the bleachers looking back at 3rd Street.

An Idea on Just How Big the Crowd Was on the March

The crowd was much larger than the organizers thought it was going to be. The route of the actual march was changed. It was supposed to go down Independence Avenue but there were too many people on the street.

What they ended up doing was telling people to march up the numbered streets. Then take a left on Constitution and then walk to Pennsylvania Avenue.

And wave after wave after wave of people did just that.

From the Post on the people taking Metro:

The Women’s March on Washington led to Metro’s second-busiest day in history, as hundreds of thousands of revelers poured into the District, taking more than a million trips on the system in 19 hours of service.

The figures surpassed ridership for Friday’s presidential inauguration and trailed just behind President Obama’s record-setting inauguration in 2009, when 1.1 million trips were taken.

Metro General Manager Paul J. Wiedefeld said Metro recorded 1,001,613 station entries Saturday; by contrast, 570,557 trips were taken Friday, the day of President Trump’s inauguration as the 45th president.

The Crowd at the Women's March on Washington

Reaching the Stage

The view of the main stage

It took a little while but I finally got close to the main stage. I could see the stage but really couldn't see who was on the stage

Right at 10am the rally started. It went for the next four hours until the area I was in finally stated marching. And I didn't even hear all of the speakers.

I did get hear among others: Gloria Steinem, Ashley Judd, Scarlett Johansson, America Ferrera, Angela Davis and many more.

From the Post:

Activist filmmaker Michael Moore ripped a copy of The Washington Post in half, noting the headline “Trump takes power” and declaring, “I don’t think so.” Actress America Ferrera said that “our new president is waging a war” on the values that define the country with “a credo of hate fear and suspicion of one another.”

“It’s been a heart-rending time to be both a woman and an immigrant,” said Ferrera, whose parents are from Honduras. “Our dignity, our character, our rights have been under attack.”

“But the president is not America,” she said. “We are America.”

The huge crowd delighted iconic feminist Gloria Steinem, 82, who was among the first speakers. “This is the upside of the downside,” she exulted. “This is an outpouring of democracy like I’ve never seen in my very long life.”

This shows how many people were behind me at the march.

On the Way to the Main Stage

A few pictures of the people I encountered on the way to the main stage.

Getting Down to the March

The crowd inside Union Station

I went back and forth on when I should leave for the march.

Did I want to get there really early? Did I want to get close to the stage?

The program for the march was supposed to start at 10. I decided I would leave around 8. Take Metro to Union Station and walk the rest of the way to where the stage was which was at Independence and Third Street.

There was a larger than normal crowd on the station platform. The train that pulled in was pretty full but not crowded. More people got on at the NOMA stop. When it got to Union Station well there all sorts of people waiting to get on.

The train filled up with people. As I was heading out there was a steady stream of people coming into the system. Union station was filled with people every where you looked. Most of them were large groups. They could have come in by bus, MARC train or Amtrak. No matter how they got to Union Station there were a lot of people there.

The same was once you got out of the station.

Everyone was heading down to the main stage. As we got closer we were told we would have to go to 4th Street and then get on Independence and head to the stage.

I sort of snuck around that and went down 3rd Street to the main stage area..

The Women's March on Washington

 What a truly amazing and unbelievable event to be part of. I'm going to be a series of posts today and over the next couple of days. This was a tremendous moment. Reaffirming just how great our democracy is. That one day after the inauguration of a new president, there was a demonstrating of such size of people who don't back the president.

The number of people who showed up overwhelmed the organizers. The original march route was discarded. It took a while but we finally started marching. The picture above is from Freedom Plaza looking down Pennsylvania Avenue. You can't see where the people stopped, It was like that for over an hour.

From the Post:

The organizers of the Women’s March on Washington, who originally sought a permit for a gathering of 200,000, said Saturday that as many as half a million people participated. On Sunday, Metro officials announced that Saturday was the second-busiest day in the Washington subway system’s history, with 1,001,613 trips. (By contrast, on Trump’s Inauguration Day, the system recorded 570,557 trips.)

I think this really sums up why people were marching:

John Fischer, a 34-year-old locksmith from Grand Rapids, Mich., drove more than nine hours with his wife, Kara Eagle.

I’m here to support my wife,” Fischer said. “I don’t care who you are, women impact your life, and there’s no reason why they shouldn’t have the same rights as men.”

Cynthia English, a 61-year-old Jamaican American who lives in Florida, said she wants the new president to know that women will be fighting during his presidency to ensure that the country and laws treat them equally. She was with her daughter and marching for her two granddaughters in the hope that no future president feels comfortable making lewd comments about women.

“I don’t want this to happen to them 20 years from now, so I am making my mark now,” said English, who wondered, “Why are we the ones that bring people into this world, and we are treated the worst? We should be treated with respect.”

More pictures and thoughts to come.

Getting Ready for the Women's March

Saw these women yesterday at the Silver Spring Metro Station. They are ready for the march.

The mission for the March:

The rhetoric of the past election cycle has insulted, demonized, and threatened many of us - immigrants of all statuses, Muslims and those of diverse religious faiths, people who identify as LGBTQIA, Native people, Black and Brown people, people with disabilities, survivors of sexual assault - and our communities are hurting and scared. We are confronted with the question of how to move forward in the face of national and international concern and fear.

In the spirit of democracy and honoring the champions of human rights, dignity, and justice who have come before us, we join in diversity to show our presence in numbers too great to ignore. The Women’s March on Washington will send a bold message to our new government on their first day in office, and to the world that women's rights are human rights. We stand together, recognizing that defending the most marginalized among us is defending all of us.

We support the advocacy and resistance movements that reflect our multiple and intersecting identities. We call on all defenders of human rights to join us. This march is the first step towards unifying our communities, grounded in new relationships, to create change from the grassroots level up. We will not rest until women have parity and equity at all levels of leadership in society. We work peacefully while recognizing there is no true peace without justice and equity for all.

HEAR OUR VOICE.