enlarge Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

Onlookers wave flags as a Jumbotron shows soon-to-be-President Barack Obama walking through the Capitol at the start of the his inauguration in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON – They laughed, they cried, they shivered and they sang.

Like the nearly 2 million people who pressed in around them, Mainers who watched Barack Obama take the oath of office Tuesday soaked up the emotion of a historic day.

"You could hear a pin drop," said Donna Miller Damon, a teacher from Chebeague Island who stood in the northeast corner of the National Mall as the nation`s first black president was sworn in.

All around her, a crowd listened in rapt attention, and when they cheered Obama's inaugural speech, Damon could hear it ripple more than a mile to the west – all the way to the Washington Monument.

"It was fabulous," she said. "There was a warmness and a shared vision for the future, and it didn`t matter if you were black, white, blue or green."

For Rachel Talbot Ross of Portland, this was a day that tied together the past and the future, both personal and national.

Talbot Ross, who is president of the Portland chapter of the NAACP, sat with her parents and son in front of the steps leading up to the Capitol Building.

"Growing up in a family that was involved in the battle for civil rights, I`ve seen what they had to sacrifice," she said. "To see that those steps had an impact is just overwhelming.

"And I know that my son's place in the world is going to be completely different and valued, because of the leadership we have now in this country."

She said Obama's inaugural address acknowledged the difficulties that lie ahead but held out an offer of hope for the future.

"We are now in a place where we can start to move forward to eliminate disparities," she said. "Not just of race, but also of economics and gender."

Elizabeth Ehrenfeld of Falmouth stood with the Capitol Reflecting Pool to her back as Obama swore to uphold the Constitution.

She said she was excited by the prospect of change and a new administration.

"I'm hopeful again," said Ehrenfeld, who teaches biotechnology at Southern Maine Community College. "It became a cliche during the campaign, but it really rings true for me."

Ehrenfeld said that sense of hope and excitement permeated her day, which began before 7 a.m. That was when she began trekking toward the Capitol from DuPont Circle.

"It was really a feeling of coming together," she said of the two-mile walk amid a growing crowd of people. "There were long lines and tight security, but nobody was complaining."

The lines were so long for admission to one ticketed area that Glenn Cummings, a former speaker of the Maine House of Representatives, wasn't sure he could get his family onto the mall in time to watch Obama be sworn in.

So the Cummings clan headed for the Canadian Embassy on Pennsylvania Avenue, one block away.

They got there in time to watch the inauguration on wide-screen television with Gov. John Baldacci and other Maine dignitaries.

"There were also a lot of Canadian hockey players there, which made my son (age 12) very happy," Cummings said.

The international presence at a U.S. presidential inauguration impressed Elonide Semmes of South Portland.

At the swearing in, and later during the parade up Pennsylvania Avenue, Semmes said she met people from Peru, Brazil, Mexico and the Netherlands.

"They had traveled all the way here for this," Semmes said. "That really struck me hard."

As she waited for Obama to take the oath, Semmes said she felt a touch of sadness thinking about deceased family members who would have wanted to be here.

A woman who stood nearby was having similar thoughts, and she showed Semmes the photographs of her family.

"We both just wanted to pay tribute," Semmes said.

Jennifer Willard of Cumberland was moved by how the immense crowd swung from upbeat to attentive as Obama took the oath.

"I saw quiet, silence," she said. "People were listening, just really intent on...