I can vouch for that. It was a mess.
The WMATA (DC Metro) today gave a count for Metro ridership on Saturday .. noting that it included riders for the Beck and Sharpton rallies, and the Nationals game that night. They said the ridership didn’t rank among the top 10 Metro events in its 30+ year history. It would be interesting to now what the top 10 events were.
On the other hand, Sharpton let slip with O’Reilly that “we knew how many we were going to have because we knew how many buses WE hired” or something awfully close to that.
I’d like to see the Metro usage at the Metro station near Dunbar High School, where Sharpton’s event was held; it is highly unlikely any of the Beck people rode to or from that station. That would eliminate a couple hundred from the Metro rolls. Similarly, they could eliminate the traffic at the station nearest to the Nationals stadium, as that is also nowhere near where Bec,’s rally was held, or where out of towners would have been riding to get to the rally.
When we left the rally, on the earlier side, there was a line a couple blocks long of riders trying to get on at the Smithsonian station. We skipped out, and walked a few blocks to another station that also eliminated our having to transfer. But the crowd at the Smithsonian was totally civil despite having to stand in line in the head and direct sunlight.