WASHINGTON — The three-day run of events in Washington honoring the late President Jimmy Carter continued Wednesday as thousands of mourners visited the Capitol Rotunda where Carter was lying in state.

Viviana Alvarez and her entire family — husband, father, grandmother, brother and 5-year-old daughter Ona — were among those who braved the cold and the queue to pay their respects.

“We believe in the good of people, and he represented that,” said Alvarez, who lives in Bethesda, Maryland.

She explained to Ona that they were going to see the “magic box” that held the former president’s remains. “He’s charging batteries for a long trip home.”

The family watched as military members went through a precise routine designating a changing of the guards watching over Carter’s remains.

Carter’s daughter-in-law, Becky Carter, stood watch with the guards for several minutes then turned around and began to greet the visitors passing through.

Marguerite Murphy and Claire Lumsden-Cook, a pair of sisters who drove up from Richmond, Virginia, were surprised to have the chance to shake hands and interact with a member of the Carter family.

“It was overwhelming,” Murphy said.

The two rattled off the former president’s accomplishments, including his support for Habitat for Humanity and work on human rights. They said his entire life had been dedicated to helping others, even in the decades after he left Washington.

“What a second act,” Lumsden-Cook said.

Members of the public began lining up outside the Capitol on Tuesday night as a private ceremony attended by Vice President Kamala Harris, members of Congress and Supreme Court justices wrapped up.

When the gates opened at 7 p.m., droves streamed in until the doors closed at midnight. They reopened Wednesday at 7 a.m. and will remain open for 24 hours ahead of Carter’s funeral on Thursday morning.

Volunteers with the American Red Cross were stationed outside the Capitol Visitor Center to ensure there were no medical emergencies as people waited in line in freezing temperatures.

Once inside, there were more lines before the chance to enter the Rotunda, where Carter’s flag-draped casket was placed upon the same catafalque, or platform, built when Abraham Lincoln lay in state in 1865.

Prior to exiting, visitors signed condolence books and received commemorative postcards to take home.

President-elect Donald Trump announced he would pay his respects to Carter in the evening ahead of his scheduled meeting at the Capitol with Senate Republicans. Trump and all the other living presidents are also expected to attend Thursday’s funeral.

Carter’s remains arrived at the Capitol on Tuesday afternoon after lying in repose earlier in the week at the Carter Center in Atlanta. After a formal state funeral Thursday at Washington’s National Cathedral, when President Joe Biden will deliver his eulogy, Carter will travel home to Plains one last time for a private family burial.

For Dan Salerno, it was his fourth time passing by the remains of a deceased president. The Germantown, Maryland, resident also made the trip after the death of presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Gerald Ford.

“I think it’s important as Americans to pay your respects and participate,” he said.

It was worth braving the cold to witness the ritual honoring past presidents in person because the experience cannot be replicated, Salerno said.

“You just feel it,” he said. “It’s kind of mushy. But you do. It’s hard to describe.”

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