( CNN ) -- In the U.S. Senate , where power extends from seniority and most politicians pride themselves on longevity , Daryl Chappelle has humbly outlasted them all . Retiring Thursday after 41 years , the Senate subway car operator has served longer than any current member of the Senate and all but two members of the House . Longevity that is hard to grasp . Chappelle came to the Senate , not long out of high school , in 1972 . First a worker with the night labor division , he then moved into his second and final job as a subway driver/mechanic . Ever since , the 62-year-old 's office has been a single swivel seat inside a small open-air jostling train cab . His task has been to carry senators back and forth from the Capitol to their office buildings . By one estimate , Chappelle has made the trip 130,000 times . The longevity is hard to grasp , from an era where many Americans expected to work in a single place for 30 or 40 years . The Watergate scandal . The Cold War . The Clinton era . September 11th . Chappelle has worked in the Capitol during every historic event the nation has seen since the time of Richard Nixon . When he began , the Berlin Wall was barely a decade old and Afghanistan still had a king . And in all that time , Chappelle never once stepped onto the Senate floor . Until Thursday . 41 years , then first steps onto the Senate floor . `` That was incredible , '' the bespectacled man beamed as he told CNN about the trip two floors above the subway , into the much more majestic Senate chamber . `` That was really special . I do n't know how else to describe it . Incredible , '' he said . Top leaders from the Republican and Democratic parties took to the floor to recognize Chappelle , the man who had almost no power except for what he was able to do with the few minutes American leaders sat on his train . What he did was smile . `` He has a smile the covers his whole face , '' Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in a tribute on the Senate floor . That smile has made Chappelle a bit of a legend in the echoing , sterile Capitol Hill halls . He wears it for the crankiest of politicians and on the longest of overnight sessions . `` He 's the happiest guy you ever met , '' followed Reid 's adversary , Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell . `` He has a genius for lifting people 's spirits . '' McConnell relayed the story of one of his staffers who on her first , nervous day on the Hill , asked Chappelle for directions . The subway operator gave them to the young woman and then , McConnell recounted , he said something simple that she never forgot in the overstressed workplace : `` Everything will be alright . '' Lines outside his subway car . The job of subway driver is monotonous . Shuttling back and forth , back and forth , underground for the one-to-two-block distance between buildings . Responding to a buzzer that senators can sound when they are in a particular hurry . It is the kind of job and Chappelle is the kind of worker that both parties talk about in vague rhetoric all the time . But Thursday , Chappelle took in very specific congratulations from the powerful and nearly-powerful all day long . Small lines formed as senators , staffers and visitors stood by his subway car to shake his hand and offer goodbye hugs . Dozens of reporters signed a card for him . ( Disclosure : including this reporter . ) `` Congress may not have a high approval rating these days , '' McConnell said as Chappelle sat in the chamber listening , `` but nobody who ever has had the pleasure of riding Daryl 's train can leave without feeling a little bit better about this place . ''
There is a small subway service that runs under the Capitol . # ##e has been a driver for 41 years and now he 's retired . He 's been around since the early years , and has outlasted just about everybody . He stepped onto the Senate floor for the first time on Thursday , where he paid a visit .