[Mr.Unique]

The Park Service doesn’t do estimates.

Who did the estimate?

[RaceBannon]

The Park Service called Larry Baily, Larry Baily told me and I announced it at the dinner we had later.

[smoothsailing]

The Park Service called Larry Baily, Larry Baily told me and I announced it at the dinner we had later.

I got the same estimate from Capt.Bailey by cell phone on Sat. the 17th around 2:30.

Here's something you both might appreciate, courtesy of Citizen Smash

The aerial photo above is marked with my observations of how the groups are arrayed. The anti-war groups are marked in yellow, the police in blue, and the Gathering of Eagles (GOE) in red. As you can see, the middle of ANSWER’s muddy ball field is virtually empty. After four years at Annapolis, I became very accustomed to seeing the assembled Brigade of 4,500 midshipmen. This crowd might be a little bit bigger than that, but not by much. Maybe 6,000 to 7,000 tops. Not an impressive turnout at all, by ANSWER standards.

I give ANSWER the benefit of the doubt – for the moment – and assume that many of the protesters have yet to arrive. It’s only 11:30am, after all, and the march isn’t (officially) scheduled to step off until 12:00pm, although I know from experience that they always start an hour late (in fact, ANSWER’s permit to close the roads to the Pentagon won’t take effect until 1:00pm). So, after trudging around in the mud for a few minutes (and being offered several more socialist newspapers), I decide to head over to the Wall.