Trains and T-stops were packed on Saturday as thousands poured in from neighboring cities like Somerville to participate in the Boston Women’s March.

By Joe Ruvido

Somerville residents joined an estimated 175,000 others at Boston Common on Saturday for the Boston Women’s March.

The march, which was billed as a protest against the anti-female rhetoric and policy proposals of President Donald Trump also served as a general protest against his presidency.

Speakers at the rally preceding the march included Massachusetts Senators Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and State Attorney General Maura Healey.

Hundreds waited at the Davis Square T station as packed trains from Alewife with no room for riders bypassed the platform. The MBTA had to send empty trains to Red Line stations to accommodate the influx of riders on their way to the protest. An empty train sent to Davis at 11:00 a.m. was met by cheers and applause.

Protesters brought signs or otherwise made makeshift ones at the station before getting on the train. Others donned the pink hats that were legion at other protests in the U.S. and abroad.

Somerville resident Gretchen Brion-Meisels, wearing a “Black Lives Matter” t-shirt as well as a pink hat, waited eagerly for a train. “We brought our kids to other protests. It’s important to be a part of moments like this against injustice,” she said when asked why she and many others brought their young children to the protest.

More than 175,000 protestors were estimated to have participated in the Women’s March in Boston.~Photos by Joe Ruvido

Many attendees were happy with the turnout. A group of middle-aged women wearing pink hats, cramped with arms at their sides on the standing-room-only train car were nonetheless in good-spirits on their way to the Common. “It restores my faith in humanity,” remarked one member about the large crowds. “We don’t want to go backwards. We don’t stand with that.”

The crowd was not homogenous in terms of gender, demographics, race or ethnicity. In addition to women’s rights, many held signs in support of LGBTQ rights, racial equality, immigrant rights, climate science, and a free press.

The demonstration in Boston was nonviolent and peaceful, like its counterparts in Washington DC and elsewhere. No counter-protestors or disruptors interrupted the speeches or the march.

Others on the train and downtown who were not attending the march were nonetheless awed at the size and enthusiasm of the protest. Cambridge resident Tai, a first-generation immigrant from India, was surprised that the trains were so full for a Saturday in January. “I’m going to Macy’s,” he said as crowds streamed past him from Park Street station toward the rallying point on the common. After soaking in the scene for a minute, he smiled. “This is a beautiful country.”