So, How Much Sanity Was There in D.C. Yesterday? (Updated)
The gates were gone by the time the Mythbusters got onstage, around 12:30.
Now as for the photos, if you’ll notice, Mr. Martin states that from the AP photo, he estimates that the crowd ends at 7th St (see where the round building is in the lower right hand side?). I do not disagree with this assessment. However, the other photograph that I posted shows the crowd clearly extends beyond 7th st, past the round building. None of the photos show exactly how far the crowd stretches or where it ends, so I can’t say how big the crowd was, nor can I conduct any analysis of the kind Mr. Martin did.
But what I am saying is that Mr. Martin is basing his estimate on an inaccurate photograph, and that his estimate is therefore also inaccurate. To what degree, I cannot say, but I do think it is quite unlikely that you can make an accurate estimate of crowd size from any of the pictures we’ve seen.
