My estimate

GatewayPundit posted a graphic from Obama's inaugural. The image showed how many people could be estimated to fill the various parts of the mall. I've annotated it from my observations:


(The picture is upside down, and north is on the bottom of the image, south on the top.)

I was in the orange circle nearest to the Capitol on the left side of the picture. I have marked where I started out with a yellow and red dot. I eventually moved up to the roadway that you can see between my dot and the steps--from there, I could directly see the stage and the people talking.

From that grassy area, I couldn't see very well, but I could see enough to know that we were not only packing Pennsylvania Avenue and the Mall, but Independence Maryland Avenue as well.

I've put a thin black line around the area that I am certain we were filling. I had no view down the mall, but from other images I'd say at least 1/3 to 1/2 the way to the Washington Memorial. (There was a "National Black Family Reunificataion" festival going on on the west end of the mall. Rumor had it, we were spread all the way down that way, but picture I've seen show the crowd thinning out to nothing by the time the tents for the black festival begin.)

From my line, you can make your own estimates--though, keep in mind that where I was people were quite comfortably spread out. We had an area to sit down, put our signs down, and still leave plenty of room for people to walk around us. But we were not in the center part of the mall, nor were we down any of the streets, which looked quite crowded and people weren't sitting.