About an hour ago I got a tip that there were a ton of police cars outside the DP offices at 40th and Walnut so I ran downstairs to check it out. The police cars turned out to be nothing but what I did encounter was a column of students — at least 300 — parading down the Walnut Street sidewalk cheering and screaming. I followed the crowd as it turned left onto 41st street. The Beige Block residents came out onto their porches to see what all the ruckus was about; as soon as most of them figured it out they grabbed a pair of shoes and joined in.

The growing mass turned onto Spruce Street and then came in by the Tampons. Students streamed out of the high rises forgetting Penn cards and cell phones. They stopped to hug each other and scream. Some brought drum sticks and started pounding out a beat on the lamp posts and trash cans.

But campus wasn’t enough. The mass of people began making their way down Locust Walk. Allied Barton guards cheered them on. I thought the parade would stop on College Green but the crowd had far too much energy for that. The column of people, which must have reached a few thousand by that point, turned onto Walnut by 34th street and began marching to City Hall. Cheers of “yes we can!” rang out and the roar of the crowd rose as we met up with the Drexel students. People filled the streets; cars were stopped in their tracks but seemed content to honk and join in the fun.

This is the most incredible thing I have ever seen students do — it was like the excitement after Phillies win on steroids. One girl said to me on Spruce Street, “It restored my faith in America.”

Stay tuned for updates from our reporters, photographers and videographers, who are following the crowd all the way down to City Hall.

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