WASHINGTON — As presidents go, Gerald Ford was solid and reliable, but not too fancy. His return to Washington yesterday evening was in keeping with the image of a simple man from the Midwest who led the country during difficult times.

Ford, 93, who died Tuesday, was brought to lie in state at the Capitol Rotunda without most of the fanfare that attended Ronald Reagan's state funeral in 2004.

Ford's casket arrived at Andrews Air Force Base soon after nightfall. Instead of a caisson pulled by a horse, the casket was driven in a hearse.

The hearse first passed through Alexandria, Va., where Ford and his wife, Betty, lived during the 25 years Ford represented the Grand Rapids, Mich., area in the U.S. House.

It also stopped briefly at the World War II Memorial on the National Mall in recognition of Ford's service on a light aircraft carrier in the Pacific.

During the services inside the Rotunda, outgoing House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said Ford "confidently lived the virtues of honesty, decency and steadfastness" and helped the nation heal after Watergate.

"In the summer of 1974, America did not need a philosopher-king or a warrior-prince, an aloof aristocrat or a populist firebrand," Hastert said. "We needed a healer. We needed a rock. We needed honesty and candor and courage. We needed Gerald Ford."

Ford's honorary pallbearers included Vice President Dick Cheney, who served as chief of staff in the Ford White House; former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan; and former secretary of state Henry Kissinger.

Earlier yesterday, under bright blue skies, preparations for Ford's service seemed almost lost amid the crowds that had come to the National Mall to visit museums and memorials on an unusually warm winter day.

At mid-afternoon, when a park service worker opened the gate to the cordoned-off area for mourners who would later view the casket, only about two dozen people entered. Some were there to witness history and weren't even alive when Ford replaced Richard Nixon in the White House amid the Watergate scandal.

Several, however, said they wanted to pay respects to a man who held the country together during that tumultuous period.