While cold weather and heightened security likely dampened turnout, thousands of well-wishers still traipsed through the snow and ice to pay final tribute to the 39th president.
They came amid the ice and snow, bundled in parkas and long johns, expecting an hourslong wait in the subfreezing temperatures and whipping winds.
Instead, the mourners who journeyed through the maze of barricades around the Capitol to pay their final respects to President Jimmy Carter were shocked to find such a short queue, waiting just 10 to 20 minutes at most to honor the 39th president, who died at 100 last month.
Parents pushed strollers. Children and adults alike lumbered into the Capitol dressed in insulated snow pants and clunky winter boots. No celebrities, sports stars or internet icons made appearances in the Rotunda, as they have for previous presidents.
But President-elect Donald J. Trump and his wife, Melania, were expected to pay their respects later Wednesday.
And the slow and steady stream of regular people — as well as several members of Congress, staff, military leaders and dignitaries — seemed a fitting tableau for the lying-in-state of the humble peanut farmer from Georgia, who prided himself on living more than 60 years in a four-bedroom home valued at just over $250,000.
