Reagan's body will arrive Wednesday night and lie in state in the U.S. Capitol, which will be open through the night Wednesday and Thursday to allow citizens to pay their respects to the 40th president. On Friday, former senator John Danforth, an Episcopal priest, will officiate at a funeral service at the National Cathedral.

Nearly 20 heads of state are expected for Reagan's funeral. The Department of Homeland Security has designated the three days that ceremonies will be held here as a "national special security event," putting those days in the same category as this week's international economic summit in Sea Island, Ga., and this summer's national political conventions.

The involvement of the Homeland Security Department, created just two years ago, represents the biggest change that has taken place since Washington hosted its last presidential funeral for Lyndon Johnson in 1973. "What's different is 9/11," Ramsey said.

The Secret Service is organizing a vast security operation. Leave has been canceled for the U.S. Park Police and the Metropolitan Police Department, and U.S. Capitol Police will work 12-hour shifts.

Sharpshooters will be stationed on rooftops, undercover police will mingle with the crowds and a closed-circuit camera system will monitor key sites in Washington as the funeral parade moves across town Wednesday night and again on Friday.

Officials here are trying to balance the need for security with a desire to allow the public to pay final respects to Reagan. The public will be allowed to line Constitution Avenue, from the Ellipse behind the White House to the U.S. Capitol, on Wednesday to view the procession of the former president's remains in a horse-drawn caisson.

After a private ceremony for members of Congress and friends of the Reagan family, the Rotunda will be open to the public. Capitol Police believe at least 100,000 people will pay their respects. Mourners are being asked to travel light: Cameras and oversize bags will be confiscated.

The federal government will be closed on Friday, the day of Reagan's funeral. But District of Columbia officials have not yet decided whether to follow suit. If they do, the many police and emergency officials who must work that day will qualify for double-time pay, a tab that could run upwards of $8 million. "We're thinking that the best way to honor the former president might be to put in a good day's work," said Tony Bullock, spokesman for D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams.

Further complicating the logistical and planning challenge is construction of the mammoth Capitol Visitor Center, which has turned the Capitol's east front into an unsightly and impassable excavation site. As a result, Reagan's pallbearers will carry his coffin up the marble steps on the west front of the building, retracing some of the steps Reagan walked when he was inaugurated president.

On Monday, the Senate formally approved a resolution permitting the 40th president to lie in state under the Capitol Rotunda. The House of Representatives plans to follow suit today.

Reagan will be the 29th person so honored; he will be the 10th president of the United States whose remains will rest on the pine wood and black broadcloth catafalque that was originally designed for Abraham Lincoln's funeral in 1865. Workers for the Capitol architect's office on Monday removed the glass cover from the catafalque, stored in the Capitol basement, and began preparing it for the ceremony.

Source: Agencies