Women's March 2017: Thousands Take to Washington, Other Cities in Sister Marches as Challenge to Trump

The day after the inauguration of the 45th President of the United States, women and their allies gathered by the hundreds of thousands in Washington D.C. for the Women's March on Washington and by the thousands elsewhere in the country to participate in sister marches with the same unifying message of equal rights and a vow to oppose anyone who may threaten those rights.

Women getting to the march in the D.C. area were met with huge crowds at the metro stations and ridership as of 11 a.m. was at 275,000 riders or eight times that of a normal Saturday. In comparison to what the marches were organized in response to: the inauguration of President Donald Trump, around 11 a.m. Jan. 20, ridership on the metro peaked at about 193,000 riders. The crowd at the march was so big that officials said a formal march will not be possible, however organizers said they will still be marching, though demonstrators will need to be patient. Sister marches took place in Boston, New York City, Los Angeles, Wisconsin, Austin, Chicago, Nashville, Minnesota, San Diego, New Jersey, the San Francisco bay area and in numerous locales across the country.

In New York City, more than 76,000 people registered for the march taking place in the president's home city. The march took over Manhattan from the United National Building to Trump Tower. The large turnout in Manhattan forced marchers to split off from the main route and find alternate paths to Trump Tower.

In Boston, demonstrators gathered on the Boston Common for a one mile march. Boston resident Mitchell Tunic told Boston Patch he hasn't seen anything like this since the Vietnam war protest.

The marches had one visual element in common, a sea of pink hats, part of the "Pink Hat Project," which began as a challenge to knit, crochet and sew thousands of pink hats to keep everyone's ears warm and make a statement at the same time. The statement the hats are making is in reference to comments made by Trump on a hot mic, bragging about grabbing women without their consent.

Click here for updates from the Women's March on Washington.

In Chicago, where the march drew the second biggest attendance, police informed marchers that the march had been changed to a rally due to the size of the crowd.

Chicago was by no means the only city with a sizable turnout. Below are just some scenes from marches across the country.

Denver

Boston

St. Louis

New York City

San Jose

Hartford

In Cleveland, marchers turned out from all over northeast Ohio on the city's public square.

"We want to send a message. We are anti-Trump. We are pro-women," Judy Coleman and Jan Kinson, two of the marchers, told Cleveland Patch.

And not far from the main march in D.C., marchers gathered in Baltimore near the Johns Hopkins University campus.

"Things that a lot of us hold very dear are threatened right now," Ellie Mitchell told Baltimore Patch, listing health care, civil rights, the environment, reproductive health rights and policies around violence against women as areas of concern.

"...the list is pretty endless, and it's real; it's not like these are theoretical things," Mitchell said. "The changes are already being made with the stroke of a pen, and it's very disconcerting."

Demonstrators marched in cities big and small. In Asbury Park, New Jersey, a march organized in less than a week by four women drew 6,000 people. The march's message to participants was to find a cause and get involved.

Another 6,000 were said to be at the march in Trenton, New Jersey.

In Poughkeepsie, New York more than 4,000 people from all over the Hudson Valley turned out to march Saturday morning in the Poughkeepsie Women's March. Women, men and children walked the length of the Walkway Over the Hudson, a linear state park created out of an abandoned railroad bridge, to the Ulster County side and back to the Dutchess County. They carried signs, wore pink knit caps and chanted and sang for the duration.

The marches followed a day of demonstrations shortly after the inauguration that at times turned violent. In the nation's capital, windows were smashed, a limo was set on fire, six officers were injured and over 200 people were arrested. In Seattle, on the University of Washington campus, a man was shot in the abdomen at a protest aiming to delay a sold-out event featuring Milo Yiannopoulos, the editor of the controversial right-wing news site Breitbart. An anti-Trump protest from earlier in the day merged with Yiannopoulos protest.

According to a report in USA Today, Trump's inauguration will be protested in all 50 states and in 32 countries.

Patch has reporters cover the marches across our network. Refresh this page for real time updates.

Brendan Krisel, Greg Hambrick, Dan Taylor, Mary Ann Barton, Chris Mosby, Michael Woyton, Neal McNamara, Alison Bauter, Patrick Martin, Karen Wall, Elizabeth Janney and Joe Vince contributed to this report.

Top Image Credit: Brendan Krisel/Patch, Sarah Betancourt, Patch Correspondent, Missy Toms of Lakewood, Ohio