Revellers, protesters to cram U.S. capital

• Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to clog the nation’s capital for Donald Trump’s inauguration and a major demonstration the day after. How many will actually arrive to party or protest is an open question.

Officials estimate that 800,000 to 900,000 people will be present Friday for the inauguration, a celebration that takes over the city, closing roads, taxing the city’s Metro transit system and making getting around difficult. Trump himself has promised “massive crowds,” but just what that will mean is unclear.

Hundreds of thousands of others are expected Saturday for the Women’s March on Washington.

Trump showed he could draw crowds during the campaign, but his supporters weren’t so quick to make plans to be in Washington for his inauguration.

Elli ott Ferguson, t he president of Destination DC, the city’s convention and tourism bureau, said that before Election Day hotels had more events tentatively planned for a Hillary Clinton victory than a Donald Trump one. And when Trump won, the “level of enthusiasm” and demand for hotel rooms did not immediately reach that of past recent inaugurations, he said.

“No one’s phones were ringing” on the day after the election, he said.

Things started to pick up after New Year’s, but some hotels have cut back minimum- night stays from four nights to two. Some hotels are only 50- per- cent full, though higher- end hotels apparently have more bookings, he said.

“It’s been much, much slower than anyone would have anticipated for a firstterm president,” he said.

Saturday’s march has helped drive more reservations, he said.

“The moment it was confirmed it was happening in the city our hotels were seeing reservations take place,” he said.

City planners are betting that Trump’s inauguration is more like President Barack Obama’s second inauguration in 2013, which drew more than 800,000, rather than Obama’s first in 2009, which drew 1.8 million people.

Women’s March on Washington organizers said in applying for a demonstration permit that they expected 200,000 people.

Christopher Geldart, the District of Columbia’s homeland security director, thinks the march will draw more than that. Some 1,800 buses have registered to park in the city on Saturday, which would mean nearly 100,000 people coming in just by bus, Geldart said. Amtrak trains into and out of the city are also fully booked on that day, Geldart said.

In contrast, approximately 400 buses have registered to park in the city on Inauguration Day, said Terry Owens, a spokesman for the District Department of Transportation, though he said that number is growing daily.