On June 8, 1968, thousands of grief-stricken citizens gathered at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City for the funeral of Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Following the moving service, a slow-moving funeral train carried Kennedy’s body south to Washington, D.C., where he was laid to rest alongside his brother, President John F. Kennedy, at Arlington National Cemetery.
The 225-mile train journey became a massive, spontaneous public vigil. Instead of standard track safety, an estimated one million everyday Americans of all races and backgrounds lined the railroad tracks for hundreds of miles—standing in silence, saluting, weeping, and holding up homemade signs to catch a brief, final glimpse of the passing train cars in a powerful display of shared national mourning.
