Thousands of Americans filed silently past Ronald Reagan's body at the US Capitol on Thursday in an emotional outpouring of respect and affection for the 40th president of the United States.
A steady stream of viewers - at least 2,000 an hour - filed slowly past the flag-draped coffin in the Capitol Rotunda from Wednesday evening into the morning. Some waited up to seven hours in a line that snaked around the building on a hot, humid night.
"It's the first and only time I'm ever going to be able to be in his presence," Jeff Riley, 36, who said Reagan inspired him to join the Marine Corps, said on CNN early on Thursday. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
Reagan's coffin was to lie in state until Friday morning, when a funeral service will take place at the National Cathedral. Around 150,000 people were expected to file past the casket during those 34 hours.
After the funeral, Reagan's body will be flown back to California one last time for a sunset burial on the grounds of his presidential library overlooking rolling desert hills just north of Los Angeles.
Many past and present world leaders and veterans of the Cold War struggle against communism that Reagan helped to end were making their way to Washington for the funeral.
They included former Soviet Communist leader Mikhail Gorbachev, formally representing Russia, and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, a staunch Reagan ally.
Lech Walesa, the shipyard electrician who became a labour leader in Communist Poland and later his country's president, was also attending.
Reagan died on Saturday aged 93 after a long struggle with Alzheimer's disease. He bid farewell to the American people in a moving letter 10 years ago and had since lived in seclusion, cared for by his wife, Nancy.
Since Saturday, the US media has provided blanket coverage and glowing assessments of the historical legacy and sunny personality of a man rated one of the most significant US presidents of the 20th century.
The elaborate symbolism and pageantry of the week of mourning, orchestrated according to plans drawn up long in advance by the Reagan family, seemed fitting for a man whose public skills were first honed as a Hollywood movie star.
On Wednesday, military jets swooped low over the procession and drums rolled as the body was brought on a horse-drawn military wagon to the Capitol.
Thousands of people lining the road applauded and cheered Reagan's widow. Now 82, the frail-looking former first lady leaned for support on the arm of a military officer and waved to the crowd. Many onlookers waved American flags. Some cried, others took photographs as the procession passed.
Reagan's death has unleashed an outpouring of public affection for a president who was often seen as a sharply divisive figure during his eight years in office, between 1981 and 1989.
At a brief service Wednesday evening, Vice President Dick Cheney hailed Reagan as the victor of the Cold War.
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