I took my kids and their mom to be a part of history for the swearing-in ceremony of President Barack Obama on Jan. 20, 2009. It was an amazing event. The national park police estimated 1.8 million people were present, which would be the largest gathering for any political event in the U.S. and probably the largest ever in U.S. history.
News reports claim that 3 million attended a parade for the Boston Red Sox after they won the World Series in 2004 and 2 million crowded Philadelphia's parade for the Phillies last year. But those were media estimates, not official ones from an organization specializing in crowd estimates.
So the debate on who attracted the largest crowd will rage on. I guess it does say something about our society when sporting parades top the current wiki list of largest crowds in U.S. history.
The satelite photo shows the Obama inauguration crowd from a unique perspective. FYI, my family is in the blob between the Washington Monument and WWII Memorial. You see us clearly, don't you?
