Show Inaugural crowd size baffles experts Noam N. N Levey Los Angeles Times More than 1 I million giddy spectators convened on the National Mall to watch Barack take the oath of office Tuesday but it is unclear if the crowd surpassed the record believed to have been set at Lyndon B. B Johnsons Johnson's 1965 inauguration Though early estimates Tuesday ranged as high as 2 million satellite images of swearing-in swearing suggested the crowd may have been about half that according to Clark McPhail I a sociologist who has been analyzing crowds on the mall since the It was sparser than I thought said McPhail a sociology professor emeritus from the University of Illinois There were lotsof lots lotsof lotsof of open spaces The which calculates crowds for large Washington events is expected to provide a closer estimate later in the week a spokesman said inaugural crowd was estimated at 12 million Crowd-counting Crowd is an inexact and controversial science and experts cautioned that it would be difficult to quickly calculate the size of the gathering Tuesday morning the hometown Washington Post initially cited security sources who put the crowd at 18 million The Associated Press which did its own analysis estimated more than 1 I million McPhail point pointed d to relatively sections of the National Mall between the Capitol and the Washington Monument and to thin crowds along the parade route That would place the crowd significantly below the 3 million that Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty warned might converge on the city for the inauguration On Tuesday some signs initially pointed to a record- record setting event Nearer the Capitol inauguration-goers inauguration stood shou shoulder to I der- der tos to- s h ou Ider Elsewhere long lines of people waited for hours to get through security checkpoints to watch the inaugural parade down Pennsylvania Avenue Some like Teresa Wright never made it Unfortunately Im I'm going to have to catch it iton iton iton on the news she said standing on a street corner near the White House Wright who traveled to Washington from Philadelphia for the inauguration said she was bitterly disappointed but happy that shed she'd comeI comeI comeI come I was here she saidI said I heard the crowd I roaring when he was sworn in |