Oh, if only you could have been there. If only you had been in the crowd — a cool 1.8 million — you could have seen for yourself how massive, how emotional, how absolutely freezing the masses were as they watched Barack Obama take the oath of office. If only you had just made the trip to Washington, you could have gotten some tangible sense of how impressive it all was — or you could just log on to a website called GigaPan, which hosts super-high-resolution panoramic photos. (See pictures of Barack Obama's Inauguration.)
Using a robotic camera mount and special software, photographer David Bergman stitched together 220 separate images of the Inauguration to create a large-scale photo so zoomable that you can see details down to the notes on the pages of the band's sheet music. Look, the Bush daughters had blankets! Look, Yo-Yo Ma is taking a picture with his iPhone! Look, Newt Gingrich isn't even watching Obama give his speech! On his website, Bergman says his panorama, a virtual Where's Waldo of Inauguration Day, is 59,783 pixels wide by 24,658 pixels tall; the photo file weighs in at a whopping 2 GB. Scan the crowded dais for your favorite politicians or browse the faces in the crowd to see if you can find friends and family.
There's even something for our former President to find. Can you spot the Lone Star flag waving in the crowd?
See pictures of the best Obama Inaugural merchandise.