WASHINGTON (AP):

The National Mall in Washington, DC, pulsed with celebration and history yesterday as Barack Obama took the oath of office before a vast, energised crowd witnessing a transfer of power like none other.

Roused by Obama's moment, crowds estimated at more than one million clogged the mall and Pennsylvania Avenue, erupting in jubilation the moment Chief Justice John G. Roberts became the first to declare: "Congratulations, Mr President."

The crowd roared. Trumpets blared.

In sharp contrast to the stirring welcome for Obama, President George W. Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney emerged from the Capitol on

to the inaugural platform to jeers, boos and chants of "na na na na, hey hey, goodbye".

Enduring below-freezing temperatures for hours, people streamed from subway stations and thronged past parked buses, emergency vehicles and street vendors to Pennsylvania Avenue and the National Mall for the inauguration. Ticket holders approaching the inaugural site filed through security sweeps in lines coiled like cinnamon rolls.

The shattering of racial barriers with the inauguration of the first black president lent a deeply personal dimension for many in the crowd as well as a historical landmark for all.

"I've been real emotional all morning thinking about my grandmother and the heroes whose shoulders we stand on," said Lyshundria Houston, 34, in Washington from Memphis, Tennessee, after more than 20 hours of travel.

Ancestors would be proud

Houston, who is black, said: "They'd be so proud."

Coming from the city where Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated, she reflected on the civil-rights movement on her way to the parade, and said: "Sometimes that makes the cold go away."

At the Capitol building, a plexiglass shield extended about two feet up from the balustrade around the speaker's platform. Muhammad Ali took his seat on the platform, as did actor John Cusack and director Steven Spielberg. A huge cheer rose from the mall as the image of Senator Edward Kennedy flashed on jumbo TV screens, showing the veteran Massachusetts Democrat, who is fighting brain cancer, heading towards his seat on the inauguration stand.

Kennedy later became ill at a post-inauguration luncheon and was rushed by ambulance to hospital.

There was no immediate word from medical personnel on the Democrat's condition, although fellow senators said he had suffered an apparent seizure and remained conscious as he was taken for further evaluation.

A spokeswoman at the Washington Hospital Centre, where Kennedy was taken, said he was awake and answering questions. His wife Vicki and son, Representative Patrick Kennedy, a Democrat, were with him.The District Fire Department responded to dozens of calls from people falling down or complaining of the being cold, DC fire and EMS department spokesman Alan Etter said. About two dozen were hospitalised.

Received treatment

Etter said medical personnel were having trouble getting to people quickly around the mall because of the throngs of people, but he added that everyone who needed help eventually received treatment.

A flea-market atmosphere prevailed on downtown streets, with white tents set up to sell Obama T-shirts and mugs as well as food, bottled water, snacks, scarves and footwarmers. The scent of grilled sausages and steaming Chinese food greeted those who walked towards the parade route, more than six hours before Obama would pass by.

As the first waves of people began moving through security screenings, they scrambled for prime viewing spots along Pennsylvania Avenue - sitting on the kerb, staking out plots of grass, or clambering on to cold metal benches.

Some 410,000 people had entered Washington's Metro transit system by 9 a.m., an extraordinary number, transit officials said.

Cold took toll

The joyous mood of many was tempered for some by delays, and the cold also took its toll.

Others were unfazed.

Faosat Idowu of Lagos, Nigeria, had tickets for the inauguration but couldn't get through the crowds at five different entrances between the White House and Capitol Hill. She ended up walking in a highway tunnel that normally carries Interstate 395 under the Capitol grounds, closed for this one day to all but pedestrians.

OVERWHELMED

Stacey Bruns, of the Charlottesville Day School, watches at the John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Shari Westbrook along the parade route in Washington, DC.

Denise Hugo of France reacts at the Paris town hall in France.

Victoria Rodriguez (left) is comforted by Victoria Gonzalez at the Harlem Armory in New York.

Student Jacquie Wayans sheds a tear at Columbia University in New York.

National Voting Rights Museum and Institute worker Sherrette Spicer in Selma, Alabama.

Farrington James, a homeless man, cries from the Lord's Place homeless shelter in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Mary DeFreese watches the inauguration live on television at Reflections Coffee Shop in Portland, Oregon.