Crowds assembled along the 70-mile route that snaked from the family's compound in Hyannis Port, along the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, past the John F. Kennedy Federal Building and by the JFK stop on the city's subway system.
Finally it came to the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum, where his body lay in repose. As many as 12,000 people waited in line to file past his closed casket and mark the end of a national political chapter that was equal parts triumph and tragedy.
The motorcade started its trip in Hyannis Port, at the Cape Cod home where Kennedy's family held a private Mass. Eighty-five Kennedy relatives traveled with the senator's body to the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum, where the Senate's third-longest-serving member will lie in repose.
Among those accompanying Kennedy were nieces Caroline, daughter of former President John F. Kennedy, and Maria Shriver, daughter of his late sister Eunice; and his son Patrick Kennedy, a Rhode Island congressman.
Before the motorcade departed, mourners crowded the end of the barricaded road leading to the family compound.
"When a member of the Kennedy family passes, it's like family. It feels like family," said Jeanne Pagano, 54. "I really loved the man and the family. I loved them."
Kennedy will be buried Saturday evening near his assassinated brothers -- former President Kennedy and former Sen. Robert F. Kennedy -- at Arlington National Cemetery in northern Virginia.
