Were additional fencing and magnetometers used on the National Mall for Trump's inauguration?

Question

On 21 Jan 2017, the White House called a press conference where the press secretary accused the media of "deliberately false reporting" on two issues of which the number of people attending President Trump's inauguration was one. The use of additional fencing and magnetometers on the National Mall on the day of the inauguration was one of the pieces of evidence which the press secretary raised.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer said:

This was also the first time that fencing and magnetometers went as far back on the Mall, preventing hundreds of thousands of people from being able to access the Mall as quickly as they had in inaugurations past.

Source: "Sean Spicer held a press conference. He didn’t take questions. Or tell the whole truth", Chris Cillizza, Washington Post, 21 Jan 2017

CNN's Senior White House Correspondent Jim Acosta says on Twitter that this is incorrect:

A USSS spokesperson tells us no magnetometers were used on the National Mall for Trump's inauguration.

Source: Jim Acosta, Twitter, 4:47 PM - 21 Jan 2017

Were additional fencing and magnetometers (or other types of metal detectors) used on the National Mall for Trump's inauguration, compared to past inaugurations?

Answer 1

@ff524 found the 2017 parade route, 2013 parade route, 2017 ticketed users, and 2013 ticketed users access points. The 2013 ticketed users screening location was in the same place as in 2017 and had magnetometers both years. @DavePhd found Congressman John Carter's inauguration page which says, "Security requires ticket holders to arrive at least a couple of hours early, carrying no seats, camera bags or other large bags. You will be required to enter through metal detectors". So Acosta's statement is simply incorrect. The portion of the Mall which was ticketed did have security screening.

The 2017 parade route shows that the National Mall had limited entry points in 2017. That does not answer the question of whether or not magnetometers were in use at those entry points in this year or 2013. Other sources suggest that they were not.

The actual parade route (not on the Mall) had essentially the same security screening in both 2013 and 2017. This does not affect the truthfulness of either statement though, as it had nothing to do with screening for the Mall.

@ff524 found an ABC News story which says

The Secret Service says that this was the first time security fencing was installed around the National Mall for an inauguration.

However, there are at least two factual inaccuracies elsewhere in their story, so take that with a grain of salt. If believed, this would confirm Spicer's assertion that there was more fencing in 2017 than 2013. However, the same story contradicts the assertion that there were more magnetometers. Unfortunately, it does so in a factually inaccurate way:

To get onto the Mall, people were required to go through one of seven checkpoints where their bags were checked, but there were no magnetometers used at those checkpoints.

But we already know that the ticketed portion of the Mall had magnetometers. The conflict may be as simple as a missing 'the non-ticketed portion of' the Mall. Or there may be a more serious problem with that story.

If we include the Washington Monument as part of the Mall, then the parade route PDF confirms the seven checkpoints to the non-ticketed portion of the Mall. Note that that does not include the eighth checkpoint for the ticketed portion of the Mall, which is shown in the ticketed users PDF.

If we believe the basic thrust of the ABC News story, Spicer was half right. There was more fencing but no more magnetometer locations.

Answer 2

This student newspaper, The Miami Hurricane suggests there were metal detectors that slowed the crowd:

Some attributed the long wait to the slow security checks – full bag checks and only two metal detectors for thousands of people.

“I get there’s only two working machines and they want to be as safe as possible, but we are moving 10 feet an hour,” said Jacob Thomas, 47, from Tallahassee, Fla. “I would try my luck at another checkpoint, but I have already waited two hours.”

The entrance, manned by the Secret Service, Transport Security Administration and Military Police, also had a group of protesters causing an obstruction.