WASHINGTON — Hundreds of thousands of passengers clogged D.C.'s Metro system this morning, forcing transit officials to close several stops on the way to the inauguration site and prompting many people to try to walk to the National Mall.

Trains full of passengers stopped and opened their doors at several stations, but there was no room to handle the hundreds of people trying to get on board.

At Capitol South, the stop nearest the nation's capitol, workers shut down the escalators for traffic control as thousands of people jammed the platform and even more people poured out of inbound trans.

A Metro worker got on the subway public address system and yelled to the tightly packed, off-loading passengers, "Walk through the gate, walk through the gate. Keep it moving, keep it moving — you're doing great people."

Passengers inside the station then picked up her chant and repeated each phrase: "Walk through the gate. … Walk through the gate! … Keep it moving. … Keep it moving!"

After several minutes, the Metro worker then added Obama's catch phrase to the chanting, which the crowd repeated.

"Walk through the gate." "Yes we can!"

"Keep it moving." "Yes we can!"

Once outside, hundreds of people who did not have inauguration tickets sprinted across the Capitol Mall, hoping to get the best spots to watch the inauguration from the unreserved public viewing area.