Reply #11: Here's more on using the WM as a sundial.

[sofa king]

http://home.netcom.com/~abraxas2/washdial.htm

The fifth image down (a copyrighted image which I don't want to link) shows a map with time lines and date declinations, with the February 22 line being the curved one near the top of the image. If the time is between eleven and twelve, the shadow should appear to the right of the old ovoid parking lot for the Washington Monument, pointing toward the center of the Ellipse, and in fact it is pretty close, but much closer to 11am than 12 pm.

Edit: I should add that as a longtime resident of the area and a frequent visitor to large gatherings on the Mall, I think that's a sh!tload of people. Usually, when half a million or so people are there to watch the fireworks, the crowd gravitates toward the river/stage and is concentrated around the Washington Monument, and the Mall near the Capitol is usually vacant past the Smithsonian castle.

The Mall is divided into cells by cross streets, and I count nine concentrations of people in the stadium-sized rage (stadiums with people filling the field, too), with several smaller concentrations in one cell of the mall, on Maryland Ave, and along Pennsylvania Ave. That's just an awesome display of humanity there! And not a single damned arrest all day.