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One by one, mourners enter the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol yesterday to pay respects to former President Ronald Reagan.
An honor guard member watches over former President Reagan's casket.
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WASHINGTON-- The line was hun- dreds deep and three hours long when dawn broke over the U.S. Capitol.
Full of people who drove all night from Illinois or Tennessee, or rose in the black of early morning to come in from the Washington suburbs, the line zig-zagged across the front of the Capitol, stretching down the hill and snaking back and forth across the grass to 3rd Street.
"So impressive," murmured Ron Kaufman, surveying the crowd at around 7:30 a.m.
"President Reagan was always much more popular than his policies," added Kaufman, who was former President George H.W. Bush's political director and also served in Reagan's administration.
But yesterday was not about the administration insiders like Kaufman, who was just another observer watching the orderly, slow-but-steady movement of the line as thousands of regular people inched their way forward for a few minutes of history.
"He was the first president I voted for. We always had a special bond," said Linda Glenn of Cecil County, Md. "I don't know that I would make the trip for another president."
Ronald Reagan, the 40th president, died Saturday. He was 93.
It was a three-hour wait, even for those who began it at 4 or 5 a.m. By afternoon, the wait to spend a few moments in the Capitol Rotunda with Reagan's flag-draped casket was topping four hours.
Or, as one man put it as he emerged from the Capitol and whipped out his cell phone, "Four hours for 21 seconds."
But those 21 seconds were historic--the first state funeral in Washington for a former president since Lyndon Johnson's death in 1973, and the chance to say goodbye to an icon.
Eric Johnson, a teacher, drove in from New Jersey "to pay my respects and say that I was there."
"I teach history, and he's a big reason why I do it," Johnson added. "I don't think you'll see this for Carter or Ford."
Larry and Julie Alexander drove all night from Illinois, entering the line around 5 a.m.
"He was the first president I voted for. He's the reason I became a Republican," Larry Alexander said.
Over and over, people said they'd come to pay their respects to a man they saw as warm, funny, good-hearted and strong.
"Whether you liked him as a president or not, you liked him as a person," said Maryland resident Roxanne Sturdy.
It was clear many in the crowd had liked him as a president as well.
A few had old campaign buttons on their hats. Many said they had voted for him, or wished they'd been old enough to.
Some dressed for the occasion, but most dressed for the weather--a steamy, sunny, 90-degree summer day.
Red Cross workers handed out bottled water, and sanitation workers plucked bags and bags of empties from the line.
Forced to shuffle alongside each other for hours, people in line made friends, swapped memories of Reagan, talked about where they had come from to be there.
Inside, in the Capitol Rotunda, where the man himself lay guarded by members of the armed services, respectful silence reigned.
"Once you got inside, it was like a curtain came down, and everybody got somber and remembered why they were there," said Glenn.
Some were lucky enough to witness the changing of the guard--the rotation of servicemen, one from each branch of the military, who have been standing guard over Reagan's casket since it arrived Wednesday night.
"It really was an amazing thing to watch," Johnson said.
"It made my knees shake," added his friend Marc Tartaglia.
But back outside, lightheartedness returned. Visitors emerged at the bottom of a long flight of steps, where they could sign condolence books and reclaim the backpacks, lawn chairs, umbrellas and cameras they'd had to give up before entering the Capitol.
Many pulled out cell phones, telling friends and family how long their wait had been, what it had been like inside. And some got news of their own--one woman made a call only to hear that the person on the other end had just seen her on C-Span.
Indeed, at the exit, news reporters outnumbered guards. Few visitors seemed to slip by without being cornered by at least one reporter. Glenn and Sturdy said they'd already been interviewed by German and Italian television crews.
A few still shed tears, but most seemed relieved.
Having paid their respects, they were finally free to move at will, unfettered by the fences. They tumbled back out into the crowd as, on the other side of a reflecting pool, the line crept forward.
To reach CHELYEN DAVIS: 804/782-9362 cdavis@freelancestar.com
