George H.W. Bush makes his last journey to Washington
WASHINGTON - The body of former President George H.W. Bush arrived at the U.S. Capitol on Monday afternoon to begin several days of Washington tributes with all the solemn ceremony befitting a nation’s late leader.
The president’s cortege, in a flight of gleaming black limousines, arrived on a fading autumn day at the traditional site of public leave-taking after a journey from Houston, where Bush died Friday at the age of 94.
As the sky grew pink and the U.S. Army Band played hymns, an eight-man military team of bearers carried the casket up the long flight of stairs at the eastern front of the Capitol.
The crash of an artillery salute echoed over the grounds.
Inside, the casket was placed on the same pine board catafalque, covered in black fabric, that held the coffin of Abraham Lincoln after he was assassinated in 1865.
One hundred eighty feet above, in the “eye” of the Rotunda, was the 1851 fresco depicting the exaltation of the nation’s first president, George Washington.
Scores of dignitaries and legislators were gathered and were unanimous in their praise. Among them was Vice President Mike Pence.
“President Bush was a great leader who made a great difference in the life of this nation,” he said. “But he was also just a good man, who was devoted to his wife, his family and his friends.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell, R-KY., called Bush a hero and “a steady hand.”
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump arrived, long after the ceremony. They bowed their heads in silent meditation before the president saluted and the two left.
Amid the speeches and the pomp, George W. Bush, a former president and one of George H.W. Bush’s sons, looked haggard with grief.
The late president’s casket and his family had arrived at Joint Base Andrews on the jet that usually carries Trump. It landed at the base in suburban Maryland.
The plane arrived under a blue sky and rolled down an empty runway. When it came to a stop, a blue truck bearing the presidential seal pulled up to remove the casket from the aircraft.
As an Air Force band played a hymn, and a blue Air Force flag flew at half-staff, the president’s casket was placed in a black hearse, which left for the Capitol at 4 p.m.
Outside the base, bystanders with cellphones and cameras took their positions as police asked them to move back off the sidewalk, to keep the Secret Service from getting nervous.
At the Admiral Place apartment complex across the street, neighbours went to their balconies as the breeze blew briskly and the sun started sinking.