WASHINGTON (AP) - Inaugural revelers are lucky they didn't get fined for littering.

As crowds cleared the city Tuesday, their trash covered the National Mall and Washington Monument grounds after President Barack Obama's inauguration.

They left behind plastic bottles, newspapers, food wrappers, gloves and even American flags they had been waving. Trash bins overflowed with items people tossed.

Twenty-one-year-old Laura Wiesner of Youngstown, Ohio, was on the cluttered Mall near the Smithsonian's American History Museum.

She says people's quick exit - and failure to pick up after themselves - was a stark contrast to how grand the event had been. Crews face an overnight cleanup effort across the city as people empty Washington.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)