By
Gabrielle Bluestone and Lexi Dagan, The GW Hatchet
Lines outside the Foggy Bottom Metro stop were stretching around the station and more than 50 feet down the block as of around 4 p.m. Tuesday.
The long lines began around 1 p.m. as revelers began departing the National Mall, Metro worker Jibril Baith said.
“The platforms are filling up faster than the trains can pick people up,” he said.
Though crowds waiting for the Metro have overflown into the street, blocking the hospital, National Guardsman Brendan Swanson said security hasn’t been a problem.
“There are three of us holding down 2,500 people waiting for the Metro, and it’s been fine,” Swanson said.
Metro officials say they cannot estimate the wait time for the Foggy Bottom stop.
“I don’t even know where the end of the line is,” Baith said. “There is no end of the line. This is a very unusual situation.”
Some Metro-hopefuls had tried getting into other Metro stations before coming to Foggy Bottom, but eventually thought the Foggy Bottom station might be their best bet. Vendors lined 23rd Street, trying to sell inaugural t-shirts, pins, flags and other merchandise to those waiting in line.
“I figured the situation was going to be this bad, and I tried getting into L’Enfant Plaza first, but had I known the city better I would have come directly here because I also wanted to buy some merchandise,” one visitor from Chicago said.
Other visitors from Virginia also tried various stations before deciding to walk across town to Foggy Bottom.
“We knew it would get this bad, but we were hoping to be out of here before it did,” they said.
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