WASHINGTON – Fueled with rage over lewd remarks uttered by Donald Trump during his presidential campaign, by his victory and by fears that he will weaken abortion rights and other freedoms, hundreds of thousands of women, men and children overwhelmed the streets around the National Mall on Saturday.

Their protest was so massive, it overflowed its planned route on Independence Avenue between the U.S. Capitol and the Washington Monument.

City officials estimated 500,000 people were at the march, but it wasn’t clear if that included thousands jammed onto sidewalks and along National Mall.

All told, more than 600 “sister marches” were planned throughout the country, as well as some overseas. Police and organizers estimated total attendance surpassed 1 million.

In Washington, as the front of the march completed a circle between the Capitol and Washington Monument, the demonstration morphed into a swarm of people chanting and carrying signs.

Thousands spilled onto other nearby streets, clogging major north-south routes in the city.

Continuing their chants, marchers flowed around backed-up cars. Some were unsure if they were marching or trying to leave, but they said they didn’t care either way.

The protest was an angry, exuberant counterpoint to the pomp of Trump’s inauguration and parade a day earlier. And it reflected deep divisions over him in the country.

Many signs referred to a crude term for female genitalia that Trump used in a publicized video of a conversation he had with former “Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush. For the most part, signs said women didn’t want to be grabbed, as Trump had boasted, and that they were capable of fighting back.

For many, the march came after the shock over his victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton, which turned excitement over the potential election of the first female president into disillusionment and fear.

Mothers of girls at the march spoke of sending a message to their children.

Suzanne Stegic, of Minnesota, carried a sign that said, “My daughter is not 1-10. She is perfect.”

Stegic said she didn’t want her daughter’s self-image to be affected by remarks made the president. She was angry that she had to discuss with her 11-year-old daughter the sexual terms that she’d heard Trump reference.

“I’m ashamed to have him as the leader of the country,” she said.

Stegic arrived in Washington on Friday to find a city filled with people wearing Trump’s signature red ball cap and felt disillusioned.

Walking in Saturday’s crowd, which stretched as far as she could see, she said,”I feel a little bit better about our country.”

Jenny Hobson, of Berea, Kentucky, said she brought her teenage daughter to the march because of Trump’s wide support in their community.

Hobson said she didn’t want to just tell her daughter “there are still many people who stand for goodness.”

“I wanted to give her a physical manifestation of it,” she said.

Meribeth Sobol, of Danvers, Massachusetts, brought her 16 and 17-year-old daughters for the same reason.

Sobol avoids talking to others in her town about her feelings, given Trump’s support in the area.

“I feel such relief,” she said, seeing the crowd. “I don’t feel as isolated.”

Her daughters danced ahead, lofting a rainbow flag above them.

Kelly Smith, of Berea, Kentucky, said progressives were in “shock” after having come so close to electing a woman as president.

But they wanted to send a message – not only to Trump but to other conservatives – that they will not give up without a fight.

The message resonated in the remarks made by celebrities to marchers gathered at a stage: “We march today for the moral core of this nation, against which our new president is waging a war,” actress America Ferrera, known for her role in the television series “Ugly Betty,” told the crowd.

“Our dignity, our character, our rights have all been under attack, and a platform of hate and division assumed power yesterday,” she said. “But the president is not America. … We are America, and we are here to stay.”

Saturday’s marches were a magnet for A-list celebrities, unlike Trump’s inauguration, which had a deficit of top performers.

Alicia Keys sang “Girl on Fire” for the Washington crowd. Madonna gave a fiery, profanity-laced address. Cher, also in the nation’s capital, said Trump’s ascendance has people “more frightened maybe than they’re ever been.”

Trump opened his first full day as president by attending a prayer service at the Washington National Cathedral, a tradition for presidents the day after their inaugurations, and he later visited the Central Intelligence Agency.

As he traveled around town, his motorcade passed large groups of protesters that would have been hard to miss.

Outside the White House, several women who’d come to attend Trump’s inauguration on Friday strolled by while thousands of marchers chanted a couple of blocks away.

Julia Haugen, who attends Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, wore a Donald Trump button and said she had no problem with the protests.

But she disagreed with the other women.

As for Trump’s public remarks about women, she said she’s heard worse from men friends, and she doesn’t believe Trump was serious.

“It’s not like he’s going to start sexually assaulting all the women on the street,” she said.

Haugen also disagreed with women at the march who worried about losing abortion rights under a conservative U.S. Supreme Court solidified by a Trump appointment.

“I feel like a woman has a right to control what happens to her body, but she does not have the right to end another life,” she said.

Felicia Elliott, who was in town from Arizona to attend the inauguration, also said she is against abortion. Trump, she said, has raised fine children, “so he can’t really be a creep.”

Among the large number of men at the march was Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Massachusetts, whose office convinced Amtrak to add another car to a train from Boston for people attending the protest.

Moulton, who attended Friday’s ceremonies, called Trump’s inauguration speech “terrible.”

“It was somber and divisive, and it looked backward,” he said.

Reflecting on the explosive political debates in the near future, he told Massachusetts women as they were about to walk, “This is the beginning of a march that needs to continue for the next four years.”

Kery Murakami is the Washington, D.C. reporter for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Contact him at kmurakami@cnhi.com. Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.