Like the Series win, all over again

FROM STREET corners to bars, crowds chanted, "Obama, Obama," thrust their fists in the air, waved American flags and honked their horns last night.

But there was something different.

Tears were streaming down face after face.

Tears of emotion from seeing a historic moment, a moment some thought they'd never live to see.

This is a new America.

Along Broad Street near Spruce last night, hundreds flooded the streets, chanting, "Yes We Can. Yes We Can."

Carloads headed to City Hall with people cheering through sunroofs and riding on hoods. Along Broad Street, strangers - white and black - yelled "Obama" to each other. One white man, about 30, shouted, "Oh, my God," and turned to a black man next to him and gave him a bear hug.

People were blowing horns as they drove by. A few firecrackers went off. People lined the streets and beat pots and pans. They leaned out the windows and screamed, "Obama."

It was similar to the World Series championship - without overturned cars, toppled trees, drunken mania and a sea of red.

At Broad and Chestnut streets, Sade Avery, 21, and her friends talked of marching to Washington to celebrate.

"This is amazing," she cried. "It's the best thing I've ever seen. This is history."

At City Hall, traffic was stopped for blocks as a diverse crowd had Obama's victory speech blaring from car radios.

"We got a president," Miles Ellington Turner, 21, of West Philly said. "He looks like me. He looks like you. And my president is black."

At Finnigan's Wake at 3rd and Spring Garden streets, Maggie Weinrich, 30, stood outside crying for joy.

"Guess what? The war is over. The war is over. Doesn't that completely blow your mind?

"We totally did it. We took our country back."

Inside Finnigan's Wake, more than 200 people were cheering.

Neha Desai, 28, was hysterical crying. "I'm freaking out. I can't believe. I'm crying and screaming at the same time."

She held two beers. Dozens around her, young and old, black and white, sobbed.

"I'm just like so emotional. I've been crying. I'm just full. I just don't know how to explain it. It's amazing," said Beverley Chang, 39.

One person sat inside the bar in a moose suit. As he and others listened to John McCain's speech, they started to boo when McCain thanked Sarah Palin.

When McCain said he realized it was an important election for African-Americans, Wayne Rahman, 59, of South Philadelphia, said, "This is an American election. Not an African-American election. The people who really won this election were the young college students."

Outside, Cory Mervis, 35, stood outside dressed as Uncle Sam. "This election has been about participation . . . Everybody got involved and we changed the world."*

Staff writers Valerie Russ, Wendy Ruderman, David Gambacorta, Dafney Tales and Stu Bykofsy contributed to this report.