International dignitaries will join US leaders present and past on Wednesday in saying their final goodbyes to former president George HW Bush, whose life will be honoured at a funeral service in Washington.
The nation's 41st president, who died Friday at age 94, has lain in state since late Monday in the US Capitol rotunda.
Tens of thousands of Americans have quietly filed in to pay their respects to a man who steered the nation through turbulent times including the end of the Cold War -- and in a style dramatically different from the bombast and combativeness championed by the current commander-in-chief, Donald Trump.
The country's five living presidents -- Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Bush's son George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Trump -- are scheduled to attend the service at Washington National Cathedral, the Neo-Gothic spiritual center point of the US capital.
Britain's Prince Charles will be there, as will German Chancellor Angela Merkel, King Abdullah II and Queen Rania of Jordan, and former Polish president Lech Walesa, among others.
Trump's ascendancy to the head of the Republican Party saw him exchange vitriolic attacks with the Bushes, including mocking Bush senior's "thousand points of light" phrase and slamming the presidential son's 2003 invasion of Iraq as "one of the worst decisions in the history of our country."
The passing of Bush, only the second president to see his son follow him to the Oval Office, has led Americans to reflect on his life of duty and service to country as a leader of the so-called "Greatest Generation."
"We can agree or disagree with the policies. But if we respect the human being, I think it's a much broader framework for civility and good will in the country."