It was almost as if the ghosts of the 1960s anti-war movement had risen and returned to the doorstep of the White House. Families with small children, ageing hippies, war veterans and widows clapping and dancing in time to Native American drums, and the occasional waft of marijuana smoke.
'It's great to see kids at this demo - but I think there's more apathy now than during Vietnam,' said Gina Mahern, 54. Despite having to catch a 4pm flight to Chicago, she was determined to make it to the White House. It was already 2pm.
'Bush is definitely much more unpopular than [former president Richard] Nixon ever was, that's for sure,' she said as the procession slowly meandered up the street.
One banner in a sea of thousands at the rally read: 'This is what democracy looks like.' Others read 'Worst President Ever' and 'Yee-Haa is Not a Foreign Policy'.
Paul Abernathy served in Iraq for a year, from the opening assault in March 2003. 'I believe very strongly against the war in Iraq,' he said. 'I crossed the battle lines on the first day of the Iraq war - I didn't once believe we were there for the reasons we said we were. It's illegal and it's immoral.'
But as if to prove the day's democratic credentials, there were two sides to the rally. As the self-proclaimed sons and daughters of the civil rights movement trundled through the drizzle towards the navy memorial at the end of their route, they met their opposition.
'You should be ashamed of yourselves,' shouted John MacGuire, wearing a T-shirt depicting former president Ronald Reagan as Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara.