Guess What, Philly: People Came to See the Pope. A Whole Lot of Them.

The Benjamin Franklin Parkway is absolutely packed to the gills with people waiting for the papal mass.
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Crowds gathered at Benjamin Franklin Parkway for the Papal Mass on Sunday, June 27, 2015, in Philadelphia. Pope Francis is in Philadelphia for the last leg of his six-day visit to the United States. (AP Photo/Michael Perez)

Crowds gathered at Benjamin Franklin Parkway for the Papal Mass on Sunday, September 27, 2015, in Philadelphia. Pope Francis is in Philadelphia for the last leg of his six-day visit to the United States. (AP Photo/Michael Perez)

Follow Philadelphia magazine’s live coverage of Pope Francis’s historic visit all weekend long.

And here we thought no one was going to show up to our party.

After Philadelphians have feared for weeks that security restrictions and road closures would scare pilgrims away from Pope Francis’ visit, hordes of people on Sunday jammed onto the Benjamin Franklin Parkway to wait for the papal mass. The celebration, which is Francis’ last public event in the country, is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. “Lines extending for blocks are forming at some of the 16 security checkpoints and it appears it will be several hours before those waiting to get in will be cleared,” writes the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Though officials have not released an estimate of the crowd yet, photos of the scene are quite telling.

https://instagram.com/p/8JPCVnM6fV/

Also nuts: This is what the parkway looked like bright and early at 6:30 a.m. today:

https://twitter.com/ppddavebonk/status/648082589463519232

Follow @HollyOtterbein on Twitter.

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