Despite frigid temperatures and gusting winds, tens of thousands of people from across the country converged on the Mall for two days of speeches, performances and demonstrations dubbed by the Presidential Inaugural Committee "An American Journey."

Many of the events centered around the use of technology in the 21st Century.

"Technology is making everything easier," Vice President Al Gore said as he toured the "Technology Playground" tent set up on the Mall. "It is making it easier to teach kids and it is making it easier to learn. It is also making it easier to communicate with one another."

One of the most popular elements of the technology pavilion focused on communicating with the new administration. America Online provided 12 computers with the capacity to send an e-mail messages to the President and Vice President. The messages were then projected on a large screen in the center of the pavilion.

"I said congratulations on his second term and that we hope in his second term that he will pay attention to issues that concern teenagers and younger people," said Elizabeth Porter of St. Louis, MO as she waited for her message to appear on the big screen.

For those who preferred the lower-tech version, visitors could paper the "Bridge to the 21st Century," located next to the Technology Playground, with their opinions and hopes for the next four years and next century.

"I wrote 'We must learn to accept everyone and we must learn how to laugh again because it seems that people don't know how to get along any more,'" Kate Strouse of Norwich, CT said.

Organizers of "An American Journey" said they planned the pavilion to highlight forms of telecommunications that will have the greatest impact next century.

"We are expecting a total of approximately 150,000 people a day," said Mark Donovan, of Digital Evolution, the high tech think tank that produced the Technology Playground. "We are showcasing technology that we feel will really improve and alter the way people live in the 21st Century."

"From the Silicon Graphics display, to the Map Quest display to IBM, they are each showing a different direction...as far as technology is concerned. (We can get a better understanding of) how it makes sense for you to use (technology) in your everyday life and what you can expect to come around the corner." said Arthine Van Duyne of Santa Clara, CA, who worked the Yahoo booth.

Visitors to the Technology Playground had to wait up to an hour in subzero windchills to enter the tent. Once inside, they had the opportunity to test out new virtual reality, send e-mail to the President and Vice President and surf the Web. Exhibitors said they hoped to appeal to all levels of technical savvy.

"What is really interesting is the kids, Van Duyne said. "They really are homing into the technology. They see the computers and they know exactly what to do. They know how to look up the sites they are interested in. Then there are the older members of the community that are a little timid at first."

Many people seemed stunned as they moved through the exhibits.

"I'm overwhelmed by all of it. I don't consider myself particularly technically literate," Bethesda, MD native Phyllis Edelman said from the floor of the Technology Playground tent. "Though I do work with a computer, it is always 10 steps ahead of where I am and I don't know if I will ever catch up."

Others seemed underwhelmed.

"If you have the Internet at your office, I don't think that this place is that exciting because it seems to be a lot of things that you can see on the Internet and you don't need to stand in line for an hour to look at a computer," Nancy Tessmer of Madison, WI, said. "The best thing we have done here is to go to the [Green Bay] Packers Homepage."

The pavilion itself was a testament to technical innovation. The organizers had 48 hours to create the Technology Playground.

"We have got 200 computers in here and 100-150 are on the Internet," Joshua Roth, from Digital Evolution, said. "We have five T1s pulled in here for Internet access. We have approximately 8.0 megabytes per second of bandwidth . . . a normal modem has 2.88 kilobytes so we have a large increase as far as the amount of information that can be transfered across the 'Net."

"It's pretty amazing; five days ago this was a muddy field," Donovan said.