Inauguration Day Is Being Planned on This Gigantic Map of DC

We're still more than a month away from Barack Obama's second inauguration, but the planning is well underway — and apparently includes military personnel playing with this huge toy map of Washington, D.C.

We're still more than a month away from Barack Obama's second inauguration, but the planning is well underway—and apparently includes military personnel playing with this huge toy map of Washington, D.C. Pentagon and National Guard officials unveiled the massive 40-by-60 foot scale map of the capitol city yesterday, which they will use to plot parade routes, organize muster locations, and basically draw up their entire game plan for January 21 of next year.

About 13,500 personnel from the National Guard, Coast Guard, and other reserves will be used for crowd control and security, as well actually marching in the parade itself. They aren't expecting nearly as many visitors as the 1.8 million we saw at Obama's massive first inaugural in 2008 — it's expected to be relatively low-key, and the president is accepting corporate financing — but planners are getting ready for a big onslaught of tourists just the same. They're also good at making adorable models of national landmarks.

Check out some more photos of the map below, along with a video report from The Washington Post.

Reuters/Gary Cameron

Reuters/Gary Cameron

AP Photo/Evan Vucci