I was at Obama’s inauguration, and that satellite photo was definitely taken early, before the Mall got packed to the gills. I was in a mass of humanity just west of the Washington Monument (the Monument was between me and the Capitol), an area which in the picture is rather bare. The big groups of people in the picture are gathered in front of huge monitors, but by the time the ceremony started, there was zero room in front of the monitors, and people had to stand where they could. There wasn’t a single patch of land that was empty.
It’s unfortunate that no satellite was available to take a photo at the crowd’s peak, as this photo misrepresents the massive crowd. If the National Mall holds 1.5 million, then the figure of 2 million is definitely correct, since the Mall was seriously overflowing and many other people were gathered along the parade route and watching in other venues.
