  Linear and rotational dragging effects of gravitational waves on local
inertial frames are studied in purely vacuum spacetimes. First the linear
dragging caused by a simple cylindrical pulse is investigated. Surprisingly
strong transversal effects of the pulse are exhibited. The angular momentum in
cylindrically symmetric spacetimes is then defined and confronted with some
results in literature. In the main part, the general procedure is developed for
studying weak gravitational waves with translational but not axial symmetry
which can carry angular momentum. After a suitable averaging the rotation of
local inertial frames due to such rotating waves can be calculated explicitly
and illustrated graphically. This is done in detail in the accompanying paper.
Finally, the rotational dragging is given for strong cylindrical waves
interacting with a rotating cosmic string with a small angular momentum.
