Officials and citizens come to say goodbye

Nancy Reagan received cheers as she rode up Constitution Avenue.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- They came in limousines and dark suits, attesting to their high station, then they came in shorts and T-shirts, after waiting hour upon hour in sweltering heat. The mighty and the average paid tribute to Ronald Reagan, the 40th president, lying in state under a soaring dome where Americans once said goodbye to Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy.
Official Washington hailed Reagan on Wednesday as "a graceful and gallant man," in Vice President Dick Cheney's words.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., speaking at the state funeral ceremony opening the 34-hour period of Reagan's lying in state, said, "It is altogether fitting and proper that he has returned to this Capitol Rotunda, like another great son of Illinois, Abraham Lincoln, so the nation can say goodbye."
Regular citizens
Once the dignitaries had departed, average Americans who had waited much of the day began to stream past Reagan's flag-draped coffin. The public viewing goes on continuously until Friday morning.
Capitol Police, who were counting visitors as they neared the Rotunda, estimated that 80,000 has passed the president's coffin by 5 a.m. today, with an additional 30,000 lined up outside. Visitors split into two columns as they entered the viewing area, filing around both sides of the coffin in a process that roughly doubled the pace that enabled approximately 106,000 to view the president during a 33-hour period at the Reagan library in California.
Donna Hand of Ashburn, Va., waited five hours to see the coffin and spent about three minutes inside. "It was a very moving experience for me. It was very solemn," Hand said. "It made you feel patriotic."
"I thought he was a great leader" said George Ford of Cabin John, Md. "He was just a great guy. He told you like it was."
In the Rotunda
Reagan's coffin lay in state in the center of the Rotunda, a room ringed with statues of some of his predecessors and paintings depicting the founding of the nation.
It rests beneath "that big white dome, bulging with new tax revenues," as Reagan would say in his frequent criticism of Congress. But the scolding was forgotten Wednesday.
His body was flown in from California on one of President Bush's jets and brought to the Capitol on a century-old, horse-drawn caisson for an honor last accorded a president in 1973 when Lyndon Johnson died.
Crowds 15 deep watched the procession advance slowly up Constitution Avenue. A riderless horse with boots reversed in the stirrups followed the caisson, and drums sounded, marking the cadence of the marchers.
Family and dignitaries
Cheers broke out briefly for Reagan's widow, Nancy, riding in a limousine at the head of the procession. She waved repeatedly, looking wan.
"God bless you, Nancy," a man cried out.
In her husband's death as in his life, she was beside him at every step. When his coffin reached the landing of the Capitol, she reached out and touched it.
As the service ended, she again drew near, stroking and patting the coffin before taking her leave at the end of a long day that began in California.
Michael Reagan, the president's son from his first marriage, kissed the coffin before giving a half-salute, half-wave reminiscent of his father.
Most members of Congress, much of Bush's Cabinet, four Supreme Court justices and a large contingent of diplomats attended the service. Former Vice President Dan Quayle was one of only a few former officials who crowded into the Rotunda.
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., gazed at Reagan's coffin when the funeral ended. Kennedy, of course, was present in 1963 when his brother, President Kennedy, was eulogized in the Capitol after his assassination.
Republicans and Democrats alike offered warm praise for a man who often had his differences with Congress.
Later, many Reagan administration officials and political allies, among them George Shultz, Alexander Haig, Jack Kemp and William Bennett, paid a last tribute.
The feel
Unlike some state funerals, where a grief-stricken nation mourned the unexpected loss of its leader, the events honoring Reagan sometimes had the feel of a parade.
As always, every clicking step of shined boots, every sounding of the bugle, every firing of rifle and cannon was tightly scripted.
At the Capitol, Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, clicked away on his digital camera, despite a prohibition on electronic devices in the Rotunda. Some lawmakers stood on leather benches along the walls for a better view.
After the building was opened to the public, some people left crying, but others got on their cell phones to ask if they had been seen on television.
Reagan, who died Saturday at 93 at his home in Los Angeles, will be buried Friday in a sunset ceremony on the grounds of his presidential library in Simi Valley, Calif.
Bush planned to come back from the Group of Eight meeting of leading industrial nations in Georgia today and, with his wife, Laura, call on Mrs. Reagan at Blair House, the official guest residence across the street from the White House.
Aides said Bush would visit the coffin this evening. Bush and his father, who was Reagan's vice president and succeeded him in the White House, will be among the eulogists Friday.
The day was not without drama of a different kind as well. The Capitol was briefly emptied a few hours before the funeral was to begin after police feared an airplane was heading toward the building.
They quickly determined that the small plane, carrying Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher to the funeral, had lost radio transmission and was not a threat.