Papal visit cleanup continues, attendance questions remain

CENTER CITY (WPVI) -- Even two days after the pope's visit to Philadelphia, parts of the Ben Franklin Parkway remain closed as cleanup efforts continue.

However, there has been a lot of progress since Monday.

On Tuesday morning cars were travelling around a portion of Eakins Oval and the outer lanes of the Parkway are now open to City Hall.

This as the massive complex of platforms and trusses continue to come down. Also coming down are temporary cell phone facilities.

"To put it up only took, like, three days and it's only taken us two days to tear it all down. Hopefully we're out of here tonight," said one of the workers, Isaiah Van Dike.

Overall, the cleanup could take another two or three days.

Meanwhile, questions remain about the actual attendance at the event. The rumored, but never confirmed estimate of more than 800,000 is suspect.

Prior to the event, the Associated Press quoted the Secret Service saying the capacity of the secure zone was about 360,000 from the Oval to City Hall.

The Philadelphia Inquirer cited a crowd science specialist who examined a photo from the Oval to 22nd Street and estimated that portion of the crowd to be 142,000 people. He did not estimate the crowd in the eastern portion of the secure zone.