WASHINGTON — One by one they came. Parents hoisting toddlers on their hips. Two women from St. Louis, in town for a neonatology conference. A doctor from Washington whose grandmother had worked in housekeeping in the White House complex. Military generals and diplomats, C.I.A. chiefs and sports stars. And Sully the service dog.

As the body of former President George Bush lay in state in the Capitol Rotunda on Tuesday, luminaries and unknown mourners from across the country poured into the Capitol to pay tribute to a man whose inaugural vision of a “kinder, gentler nation” has become a relic of another era.

Among them was Cindy McCain, the wife of Senator John McCain of Arizona — the last person to lie in state, after his death in September. She bowed her head in silence as she stood before the coffin. Peyton Manning, the retired N.F.L. quarterback, paid his respects, as did Chris Evert, the tennis star, and Jack Nicklaus, the golfer.

Bob Dole, 95, a former Senate Republican leader, was helped from his wheelchair to deliver a final salute to his fellow World War II veteran and onetime political rival. Colin L. Powell, who served Mr. Bush as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and served his son, former President George W. Bush, as secretary of state, led a delegation of generals from Operation Desert Storm, the war the elder Bush waged as commander in chief. Gina Haspel, the director of the C.I.A., an agency Mr. Bush once headed, also paid her respects, as did two of her predecessors, John O. Brennan and George J. Tenet.