"To look up and see him take the oath, then turn around and see the sea of people, like a rainbow from all walks off life — men, women, boys, girls, black, white, yellow, brown — and from all parts of the world," said Young, "it was unreal. It was amazing."

Young said she wished her father, a man who helped register black voters and spent countless hours working for civil rights in the 1960s, could have been with her and her brother, Charles Jr. He was unable to make the trip.

"I can't wait to tell him about it," she said.

"Today shows that all his and others' hard work paid off,” she said. “I watched an 85-year-old woman today near hypothermia get through it to watch the swearing-in. It shows how much that moment meant to people."

Long lines and bitter cold didn't end with the ceremonies on the front steps of the Capitol. Temperatures still hadn't broken 30 in the early afternoon, and the wind made it feel much colder.

The crowd was large enough to shut down many of the city's Metro stations.

Richard Kelly and his wife, Ceatrice, of Meridian, Miss., had to wait until 5 p.m. to catch a train out of the city; the couple was staying with relatives in Baltimore.