How Jimmy Carter began this popular Inauguration Day tradition

Crowd cheers as Carters opt to walk inauguration route

In this raw archived footage, the Carter family waves to the inauguration crowd after choosing to walk part of the parade route, rather then ride in a limo. The decision created a new presidential tradition.

WASHINGTON - Every incoming president brings their own flair to Inauguration Day.

The late President Jimmy Carter in particular decided to do something no other president has done before and it has now become an ongoing tradition.

Walk down Pennsylvania Avenue

The backstory: Usually, the newly-sworn-in president takes a ride in the presidential limousine for the Inaugural Parade.

Carter, however, decided to walk down part of Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House, according to the White House history website.

He and first lady Rosalynn Carter, along with their then 9-year-old daughter Amy, walked in the parade because it was Carter’s "desire to make the president available for all citizens and to breathe new life into the presidency."

Carter wrote in his diary that by walking during the inaugural parade he wished to convey his "confidence in…in the people of our country" and "a reduction in the imperial status of the president and his family."

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(File: Bernard Gotfryd photograph collection, Library of Congress)

Other Inauguration Day firsts

Dig deeper: The procession from the Capitol to the White House that takes the form of the Inaugural Parade, first began when George Washington was elected president in 1789.

A large crowd, which included military units and other dignitaries, followed Washington’s carriage to his home on Cherry Street, and this tradition continued to this day, according to the National Parks Service website.

January 20

Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first president inaugurated on Jan. 20.

Originally, the Congress of the Confederation set March 4, 1789, as the date for "commencing proceedings" of the new government, according to History.com.

The reason it took four months into the new for the newly elected president to be sworn into office was to allow an ample amount of time to count and report votes.

However, due to technological advancements, the 20th Amendment was ratified to move up the date for Inauguration Day.

New York to D.C.

The first inauguration took place in New York.

When the founding fathers drafted the Constitution in the 1780s, it was decided that New York would serve as the new government’s capital.

It wasn’t until Thomas Jefferson was sworn in as the third president of the U.S. that Inauguration Day would be held in D.C., according to the President Bill Clinton White House archives website.

Technological firsts

The first photographed Inauguration ceremony took place during President James Buchanan’s swearing-in in 1857.
President William McKinley’s Inauguration was the first to be filmed by movie cameras in 1897.
In 1925, Americans tuned their radios to hear President Calvin Coolidge take the oath of office.
President Harry Truman became the first president to be sworn in on television in 1949.
In 1997, President Clinton’s second inauguration was the first to have its own official website and was the first to be seen live on the internet.

The Source: Information for this article was gathered from the White House Historical Association website, the President Bill Clinton White House archival website, the National Parks Service website, archived WNYW footage, and History.com. This story was reported from Los Angeles.

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