Barack Obama has approached his inauguration as the 44th US president with a mix of solemnity and celebration.
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The President-elect laid a wreath at a military grave before attending an open-air concert featuring Bono, Bruce Springsteen and Mary J Blige.
The events reflected popular excitement about his choice as the first black US president tempered by the fact that the US is fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and confronts its worst economic crisis since the Depression.
Walking side by side, Mr Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden placed a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery's ‘Tomb of the Unknowns’.
Later, Mr Obama called on US citizensto carry forward the legacy of Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln.
He said that despite challenges ahead he was ‘as hopeful as ever’ that ‘America will endure - that the dream of our founders will live on in our time’.
Addressing the crowds at the National Mall, Mr Obama discussed the challenges the nation faces.
After his speech and accompanied by his wife, Michelle, and their daughters Malia and Sasha, Mr Obama nodded and clapped along at the concert, which included Springsteen performing his song ‘The Rising,’ Mary J Blige singing ‘Lean on Me’ and James Taylor singing his hit ‘Shower the People.’
Spliced between the songs, actors Denzel Washington, Laura Linney and Tom Hanks gave speeches that evoked past crises in US history, including the Civil War, the Depression and the Cold War.
As Mr Obama prepares to take the oath of office on Tuesday, his senior aides emphasized his plans to quell the financial crisis that began in the US and has spread around the world.
The US unemployment rate rose to 7.2% in December, its highest level in nearly 16 years, and 2.6 million people have lost their jobs in the last year, the largest employment slump since 1945.
Mr Obama arrived in the capital yesterday evening following an ‘Obama Express’ whistle-stop train journey from Philadelphia.
