A 10-car Amtrak train, dubbed the Obama Express, left Philadelphia this morning. Some 90 members of the media joined President-elect Barack Obama and his entourage on a 135 mile whistle-stop journey to Washington D.C.
The eight hour journey included a stop in Wilmington, Delaware, to pick up Vice-President-elect Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden.
Obama started the day with a speech in Philadelphia where he pledged to take up the work that the patriots started. “We are here to mark the beginning of our journey to Washington, and this is fitting because it was here in this city that our American journey began.”
Obama informed the crowd that it was his wife Michelle Obama‘s birthday. The 45 year old soon-to-be First lady smiled as the crowd broke into a rousing round of Happy Birthday To You.
The train trip is a retracing of Abraham Lincoln‘s journey to assume his presidency.
Photos and video from Wilmington below. Family photo gallery here.