Photos and Videos: Obama Inauguration 2013

Washington, D.C. -- The historic second inauguration of President Barack Obama was a cause for celebration in the nation's capital as nearly a million people gathered on the National Mall to witness the swearing-in ceremony at the U.S. Capitol.

Of course there is much preparation involved in such an enormous event. Thousands of people worked hard months ahead of time to make sure Washington was ready for the big day. Click here for pictures of the presidential viewing stand in front of the White House under construction and click here for photos of the inaugural platform being built at the U.S. Capitol.

The second inauguration of the nation's first African-American president contained much symbolism because it occurred on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day -- a federal holiday honoring the civil rights leader. On the Saturday before the inauguration I participated in the annual MLK National Day of Service by entering a huge tent on the National Mall where various community service organizations were promoting volunteer opportunities.

Here are photos from the National Day of Service. You'll notice how empty the National Mall is compared to the hundreds of thousands of people who would be there only two days later. I also took photos of the large CNN and CBS News broadcast sets as they were preparing for the big day.

On inauguration day I walked from the place I was staying at downtown to the non-ticketed area of the National Mall, which was on the Washington Monument grounds near 17th Street and Constitution Avenue. Thousands of people were walking from the Metro station and many more took advantage of the free bicycle corral set up by the District Department of Transportation and another bike corral for those taking Capital Bikeshare to the event.

Unfortunately, the thousands gathered in the non-ticketed area of the National Mall near the Washington Monument had to endure audio and visual problems with the big jumbotron video screen. Some left to try to find better quality video, but the thousands who stayed were hoping the technical difficulties would be fixed by the time the president made his speech. But the audio problems were not fixed, even though the video improved by switching channels to C-SPAN. There were some out-of-town visitors who were disappointed, but many in the crowd didn't let it dampen their spirits on such a positive and momentous occasion. Click here to listen to how it sounded.

I had a ticket to the inaugural parade but the secret service stopped letting people into the grandstand viewing area because of overcrowding so we watched the procession from a fenced-off distance on New York Avenue and then later on from the comfort of home on C-SPAN.

Here are photos and video from inauguration day:







That night around 45,000 people packed into the Walter E. Washington Convention Center for two inaugural balls -- the main inaugural ball and the Commander-in-Chief Ball, which President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama attended.

The presidential motorcade went right past the downtown condo I was staying at on K Street Northwest as it made its way from the White House to the convention center. I took this video of the motorcade passing by.



And here are pictures of the inauguration night gridlock along K Street in downtown Washington as 45,000 people head towards the convention center.




Washington is back to normal, but what a weekend! While not as big as President Obama's first inauguration in 2009, for a second inauguration it was impressive. Looking around at the diversity on display, I felt proud to be an American and privileged to attend both of President Obama's historic inaugurations.