File:2009 01 20 - 0565 - Washington DC - 1st St (3217564590).jpg
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| Description | My first instinct was to exit Union Station and to head directly toward the Mall. It was about 9:30 am at this point, and the shindig apparently started up at about 10pm. Just like on Sunday, I knew I wouldn’t get a crème de la crème location… and yet for some reason I thought I could just beeline straight toward the Mall? What was I thinking?? Sure enough, heading down Louisiana Avenue NW, we soon came to a roadblock at 1st Street NW. We turned right to head up First Street, since that would take us away from the Mall… that’s a smart idea, right? Surely there’d be fewer crowds! Well, our little segment of 1st Street approaching D Street was only about 300 feet long. It took an hour to get off that block. The problems were many. Firstly, our block along First Street had people trying to get away from the roadblock (like us) heading northward. Then there were people with tickets to get those choice seats on the Mall; they were heading southward. I think we actually did a decent job of separating ourselves by the “keep right” method. Then there were the people approaching the pending 1st & D St. intersection… they were coming westward from along D Street. Most of these people were trying to turn left… to head south… either to join the ticket line or just thinking that they could get closer to the Mall. They came head-to-head with our line trying to go eastward on D Street. Further north on 1st Street and further west on D Street were both not going to work – they were just as packed and immobile as our present situation. Ambulances were approaching from the north and west, all trying to go eastward on D Street… the complicated matters. For a brief moment we were able to fill into the wake of a motorcycle going our direction, but others had the same idea & we didn’t get particularly far with that. People (civilians, soldiers, police, fire personnel… everyone) were up on concrete barriers shouting and pointing in all directions, providing little assistance. Citizens hoping to help clear things up were shouting out orders in direct conflict with those coming from officials… and then they’d suddenly reverse and shout an opposite order… and then they’d reverse again… both citizens and officials were doing this. I think the head-to-head crowds kind of flustered everyone there. So it took an hour to get through. During this time, however, I came to identify a particular personality which would be prevalent the entire day: that of absolute kindness & excitement. In these sorts of situations, you often get a couple people pushing hard on the crowd… with one exception, we didn’t have that at all; and that one exception soon stopped when the crowd recoiled against them & proved that it wasn’t about to move any faster. Also in such crowds, those little tiny pushes that almost everyone makes on the person in front of them tends to add up – really making a powerful force on those in front… we really didn’t have that, either, except right at the very end where we freed up. Details about pushing aside, the comradery was what really made things stand out. People were generally upbeat the whole way through, making brief acquaintances with those beside them – even if just for a fleeting moment before someone would get a chance to shift two steps away, out of vocal range. This optimistic sentiment lasted throughout the day: it was crowded, it was cold, and people were being forced to march horrendous distances… but that was the happiest I’ve ever seen people at any point in my 25 and a half years on this planet. |
| Date | |
| Source | 2009 01 20 - 0565 - Washington DC - 1st St |
| Author | thisisbossi from Washington, DC, USA |
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This image was originally posted to Flickr by thisisbossi at https://flickr.com/photos/25622716@N02/3217564590 (archive). It was reviewed on 23 April 2018 by FlickreviewR 2 and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-sa-2.0. |
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| current | 16:45, 23 April 2018 | | 4,000 × 3,000 (2.08 MB) | SecretName101 (talk | contribs) | Transferred from Flickr via #flickr2commons |
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