Estimates of people denied access

Blue: ?
Purple: >10,000
Silver: ?

Length of the Purple tunnel of Doom = .62 miles (per Google Earth)

On average 8 people abreast, with 3 feet of space (horizontally)

(.62 miles in feet / 3) * 8 = ~8730 people in the tunnel at any given time

The woes of purple ticket holders at the 2008 U.S. presidential Inauguration

Washington D.C. was filled with record crowds for the 2008 presidential election. An estimated 2 million people filled the Capitol Mall. While some hassle and waiting was inevitable, the holders of purple tickets seemed to experience far more problems than those in other ticketed sections (yellow, orange, blue and silver) or those without tickets who stood on the mall. This blog will collect stories from people who had purple tickets, but could not gain access to their section despite waiting in the cold for hours. What happened to cause so many problems and how could they be prevented in the future.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/inauguration-watch/2009/01/officials_too_many_tickets_for.html

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/getthere/2009/01/giving_up_on_purple_tickets.html?wprss=getthere

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/inauguration-watch/2009/01/many_express_outrage_over_tick.html

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=61444130820 - Purple tunnel of doom Facebook group.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rVbian4vGA

http://wcbstv.com/politics/barack.obama.inauguration.2.913349.html

http://themicrowave.wordpress.com/2009/01/20/the-purple-ticket-incident/

http://www.advocacyguru.com/inauguralticketdebacle.htm

http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2009/01/20/purple-people-pissed.aspx

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/01/scenes-from-t-2.html

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20090120/NEWS01/901209974&news01ad=1

http://blog.nola.com/myinauguration/2009/01/frustrated_by_those_without_ti.html

Write to express your displeasure and concerns:

Senator Dianne Feinstein
United States Senate
331 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

Phone: (202) 224-3841
Fax: (202) 228-3954

Potential causes we heard while stuck in the tunnel and outside the gates:
- People climbing the fence caused the section to be closed and evacuated.
- The fence into the disabled and elderly section was toppled and people rushed to the front, which caused the gates to be closed until the barricade could be setup again.
- The number of tickets exceeded capacity 100%.
- There were other lines outside of the tunnel that were merging in ahead of the supposedly official queue in the tunnel.
- Generators went down which led to slow hand-wanding (Blue only?).
- Somebody was crushed against the gates early in the process and they left the closed after that.