AT THE CAPITOL Wednesday at five, two hours before President Reagan’s body is due to arrive at the Rotunda for the state funeral, buses of Marines and Navy sailors are pulling up near the Senate-side entrance. Staffers are pouring out of nearby House and Senate office buildings into the 90-degree heat to start toward the lines that are already wrapping around the block onto First Street to see the former president who will be brought to lie in repose under the dome. The Capitol police are stationed at every corner and every entrance of the building and demand credentials from anyone who tries to pass the long line and into a much shorter queue for the metal detector to get inside.
At 5:45, the press pool is led out of the press gallery and onto bleachers in the back of the empty Rotunda. The catafalque, originally constructed for President Lincoln, is draped in tiered brown fabric and looked after by a full-cross of half a dozen military personnel.
