Inauguration crowd not like four years ago

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - President Barack Obama will be sworn in for his second term Monday morning. But the crowd is expected to be much smaller.

Four years ago, multiple buses of people made the journey from Fort Wayne to Washington, D.C. to witness the historic event. Cynthia McBride made the trip with her sister.

“To be able to see it with our own eyes, I just can’t describe sharing a moment in history like that, a first," McBride said. "It just left people speechless. ”

However, four years later, many more people are content with just watching it on their televisions.

“Just because it’s a second term, and it’s not a show of any less support," McBride said. "It’s just that that first time is so amazing. ”

McBride said family reasons kept her from going this year, but she’s planning on having a watch party with her friends. She also said it’s special that the inauguration coincides with Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

“He spoke about all Americans coming together as one, and here we have elected a president where it took all Americans to elect him into office," McBride said. "It wasn’t just one segment of the population. ”

Even though there won’t be 1.8 million people in D.C. like in 2009, officials are expecting up to 800,000 people to crowd the capital.

“It’s just really cool to be a part of history being made and to be there and to see it and feel it and to share that with so many people," McBride said.

The president will be sworn in at 11:30 a.m. Monday. You can watch live coverage of the event all day on WANE-TV, starting at 7 a.m.