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A shower of confetti, carnations and balloons and a speech by President George Bush concluded the country's celebration yesterday of the 200th anniversary of the inauguration of America's first president, George Washington.
"Today we stand - free Americans - citizens in an experiment of freedom," Bush told a crowd of about 3,000 people who gathered in lower Manhattan.
The festive ceremonies, which began under the threat of rain and concluded - as if cued by the confetti - in a burst of sunshine, were held at Federal Hall on Wall Street. The historic building is at the site of Washington's inauguration on April 30, 1789. Yesterday, actors, led by William Sommerfield as Washington, re-enacted the historic ceremony.
Sommerfield has been impersonating Washington since April 16 as part of the celebrations marking the 200th anniversary of the first inauguration. In the role, he traveled by horse-drawn carriage from Washington's home in Virginia to New York City, the nation's first capital.
Bush's nationally televised speech was upstaged briefly by six demonstrators from the advocacy group AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power. The group, hiding their cloth protest signs, managed to get tickets for the heavily secured, reserved audience area on Broad Street. Several dozen other ACT UP demonstrators were in a crowd behind the secured audience area, booing Bush.
They chanted, "100 Days and...