Women’s march crowd too big to walk to White House: organizers

A crowd of demonstrators gathered in Washington, D.C., on Saturday is too large to continue its planned march toward the White House, organizers said Saturday afternoon.

“They are going to tell the crowd they can go to the Ellipse if they want, but they are not doing the normal parade route, there [are] too many people,” Christopher Geldart, director of D.C.’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency, told The Washington Post.

The decision was not made by the D.C. mayor’s office, Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Kevin Donahue said, according to the newspaper, which reported that the decision was made by organizers.

The crowd for the march was originally estimated to be about 200,000, but organizers on Saturday said the turnout ended up being about 500,000, according to the Associated Press.

It was one of a number of marches across the country on Saturday, a day after President Trump’s inauguration. Other cities also had major crowding due to large numbers of demonstrators.