Police estimate 200,000 possible at Feb 16 San Francisco peace rally. Overhead photos, too

San Francisco -- An estimated 200,000 people of nearly all ages spilled into lower Market Street on Sunday in San Francisco for a spirited but peaceful protest against U.S. plans to invade Iraq.

Ringing cowbells, banging temple drums, chanting, singing, dancing and waving colorful signs, puppets and placards, the marchers moved slowly up Market in a huge anti-war demonstration. While most simply walked the route, many pushed baby carriages, underscoring the argument that war would threaten the future of children most of all.

The march came one day after millions of people around the world demonstrated against the U.S. government's stance on Iraq. It coincided Sunday with an war protest in Sydney by about 200,000 people.

Organizers of the San Francisco march gave an initial crowd estimate of 200,000 to 250,000, while San Francisco police estimated the crowd at possibly 200,000.

"I'm just totally overwhelmed by the turnout today, particularly when you consider that there were something like 150,000 people turned out for protests in other parts of California just yesterday," said Andrea Buffa, national co- chair of United for Peace and Justice, one of five co-sponsors of Sunday's march and rally.

Although the main demonstration remained peaceful, a group estimated at 1, 000 protesters broke away later in the afternoon and vandalized businesses and clashed with police along Market Street before some were arrested.

The main march began around noon at Justin Herman Plaza near the Ferry Building and headed to the Civic Center, stretching for more than a mile along Market Street. It took almost three hours for the demonstration to pass by.

Many of the demonstrators flocked to the rally on mass transit. BART spokesman Mike Healy estimated a jump of as many as 150,000 in Sunday's ridership over the same day a year ago.

However they arrived, by the beginning of the protest, tens of thousands of people already had packed lower Market Street from Justin Herman Plaza to Davis Street. Thousands more gathered on the sidewalks, and additional thousands streamed down Market Street toward the Ferry Building to join them.

As more protesters poured into the starting area, the crowd listened to poetry, songs and speeches by anti-war speakers.

"We're bold, we're courageous, and we're loud," Assemblyman Mark Leno, D- San Francisco, said during the hourlong rally at the beginning of the march. "March on, and let your voice be heard. We will not let the war happen."

Another speaker, Assemblywoman Patricia Wiggins, D-Santa Rosa, also drew applause from the crowd when she posed the rhetorical question: "How do you want to spend $1.5 trillion? On our children? Or on war?"

STRANGERS MINGLE EASILY

Despite the huge number of strangers thrown together for the march, the crowd had a carnival-like atmosphere and the friendly, cheerful mood of gigantic block parties. Many demonstrators greeted each other with hugs, and some said they were glad just to have a chance to make their views known to others.

Erica Hughes, who was joined by fellow high school teachers from Sacramento,

said it was encouraging to see so many people crowding the street.

"It's inspiring to see we're not alone in thinking we shouldn't be at war," she said.

Those in the mammoth crowd carried a variety of signs, banners and flags advocating a host of disparate causes ranging from straightforward pleas against war to support for medical marijuana, solar energy and selenium as a cure for cancer, hepatitis C and AIDS.

A woman with her hair done in purple spikes carried a placard that read: "War is SOOO last century."

Many of the signs called President Bush and his top advisers international criminals. Several called for Bush's impeachment, while hand-painted signs carried by two young girls likened him to the villain of the Harry Potter stories -- "Bush = Voldemort."

The demonstrators were mostly white men and women between the ages of 20 and 60, but the crowd appeared to include representatives of many ethnic and age groups, from tots in strollers to one elderly man who carried a sign that said, "Old Timers for Old Europe" -- a slap at Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's dismissal of France and Germany for their governments' wish to continue U.N. weapons inspections rather than quickly attack Iraq.

Some marchers wore Veterans of Foreign Wars garrison caps, and several showed up in full military uniforms, marching under a banner identifying them as veterans.

STRONG FOCUS ON CHILDREN

Particularly striking was the large number of children present.

"The war is wrong," said 13-year-old Amanda Howes of Hayward, who was marching alongside her 14-year-old sister, Jenna. "We shouldn't send young men to be killed just because Bush is mad."

Jenna added: "We should find a peaceful way to work out our problems."

Tim Shelley of Sacramento demonstrated while carrying a sign that said "Triplets for Peace" and pushing a stroller with his three 4-year-olds, Maile, Jared and Callahan.

"They don't know what's going on, and I don't want them to know what's going on," said Shelley, who said he had traveled into the city to participate in the march with his children "for their future."

Juni Sepe, who drove to San Francisco from Los Angeles with her 9-year-old son, Patrick, and her friend Frank Sosa, joined in Sunday's demonstration with her dog, Flaca, who wore a sign in Spanish that said "Dogs Against War."

Sepe said they had outfitted Flaca with the sign because "she is a very calm dog. We rescued her from violence, and she got the message."

Bayard Fox of Napa was holding a sign that said "Pray for a Bigger Pretzel, " a reference to the snack food that Bush accidentally choked on one afternoon at the White House.

"Of course, I don't really hope that he chokes on a pretzel," Fox said. "I'm just cynical."

TRYING TO FOLLOW JESUS' COURSE

Dressed in long brown robes, his red beard glinting in the sun, Rami Fodda strode toward Civic Center Plaza from the nearby St. Boniface Church, a Franciscan church on Golden Gate Avenue.

Fodda, who said he grew up in Saudi Arabia and is studying to become a friar, worries that a war against Iraq will endanger the lives of his relatives in Jordan and Lebanon. He said his religious beliefs form the foundation of his opposition to a war against Iraq.

"The example of Jesus is the one I follow," Fodda said. "When they came to take Jesus and Peter drew his sword to protect him, Jesus stopped him and said:

'He who lives by the sword dies by the sword.' I am acting in that way."

Along the route, some people were taking advantage of the large Sunday crowd to make a few dollars. A few small shops on Market Street that are usually closed on Sundays opened for the occasion.

Hawkers sold protest paraphernalia that included professionally printed anti-war signs, T-shirts emblazoned with "Blessed are the Peacemakers" and even voodoo dolls of Bush.

Earl Gadsden, a street singer who entertains tourists at the cable car turnaround in Hallidie Plaza, was belting out the anti-war tune "Down by the Riverside," with its famous line, "I ain't gonna study war no more."

Gadsden said he had made $11 in just 15 minutes and said of the tune, "It's a good song -- and today it's a very good song."

Peace was good for other businesses, too.

At Rainbow Pizza, where a slice normally sells for $2, the owner had set up a table on the sidewalk in front and was selling slices for $3 apiece.

And the Javalisa Cafe was advertising a "Peace Rally Special" of chicken club sandwiches for $7.

March sponsors set up a line of 29 garbage cans along the middle of the road near U.N. Plaza to collect donations to offset the cost of the rally, estimated to be more than $50,000.

HAWK AMONG THE DOVES

Not everybody who turned out for the protest expressed an anti-war opinion, though.

Jeremiah Isbell, who moved to the Bay Area from Oklahoma eight months ago, said he came to Civic Center Plaza to show his support for the troops.

The 18-year-old Isbell, dressed in camouflage and wearing a gas mask, had taped a hand-lettered sign to his backpack that said "Make War Not Stupid Delusions."

Isbell, a solitary hawk, planned to walk toward the peace marchers as they moved toward Civic Center Plaza.

"People out here are a little crazy, and they're in the minority anyway," he said.

As protesters were gathering at Justin Herman Plaza, a biplane flew over the crowd towing a banner with the contrarian message: "Appeasing evil is immoral."

While most of the marchers crowded onto Market Street, onlookers and supporters lined the march route on the sidewalks, many carrying their own signs and banners. Tourists, shoppers and other onlookers joined them, and between Sixth and Seventh streets on Market, spectators stepped out of adult bookstores and other amusement centers to take a look.

As the crowd swelled into Civic Center Plaza at the end of the march route, Janet Roitz watched her 2-year-old son, Dane, climbing in the playground.

"I'd like to be able to tell him he was here," Roitz said. "I hope it's an historic event that means there will be peace, even though he won't remember it. It will be important to say he was here."

City worker Marlon Dominguez, 48, followed in the wake of the march, tidying up after the protesters, sweeping streets and emptying trash cans.

"They're pretty clean," Dominguez said. "Everything is good, and everybody is working together."

Chronicle staff writers Tom Abate, Nanette Asimov, Kathleen Sullivan and Bill Wallace contributed to this report. / E-mail the writers at ahendrix@sfchronicle.com, ppodger@sfchronicle.com and srubenstein@sfchronicle.com.