Check out this photograph from January 2nd, 1922. This is the line of people waiting to get into the White House. The line stretches all the way up 17th St., across Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the State, War and Navy Building and then down the White House driveway. This has to be well over a thousand people.
When I was a kid in the 1970’s, it was still possible to go and stand on line and get into the White House. Once inside, you were pretty much free to walk around the East Wing. Nowadays, you have to plan it several months in advance through your Congressperson’s office.