Bryan Thomas for The New York Times Ulysses S. Grant and his wife get some peace and quiet in their tomb during the government shutdown.And on the seventh day, Horst and Kristine Sahlmann of Hamburg, Germany, attempted to visit Grant’s Tomb.
It, too, was closed.
As the federal shutdown drags on, travelers and history buffs are discovering it isn’t just icons like the Statue of Liberty that are off-limits.
There are at least half a dozen shuttered sites across Manhattan, islands of federal dysfunction in a bustling city.
They include the National Museum of the American Indian; Federal Hall, the nation’s first capitol; the African Burial Ground; Alexander Hamilton’s colonnaded old house; and Teddy Roosevelt’s birthplace.
On Monday at Grant’s Tomb, the imposing granite mausoleum in Riverside Park, a neon-orange jacket that said “security†sat unused in a guard booth. The flags still flew at full mast.
Tour buses stopped, but no passengers got off â€" not even to take a picture.
“People are just disappointed,†said Louis Jimenez, a lonely bus-company sentinel at the drop-off point.
This included the Sahlmanns, who had already tried to visit the Lady Liberty.
“For tourists, it’s not good,†Mr. Sahlmann said. “It’s very frustrating.â€
Here’s what else you need to know for Tuesday.
WEATHER
Back to sunshine for two more days, with a high of 68 today. Yesterday’s quarter-inch of rain in Central Park was the first measurable precipitation in more than two weeks.
COMMUTE
Subways: O.K. so far. Click for latest status.
Rails: Fine so far. Click for L.I.R.R. and Metro-North status.
Roads: Click for traffic map or radio report on the 1s.
Alternate-side parking is in effect all week.
COMING UP TODAY
- The candidates for comptroller, the Democrat Scott M. Stringer and the Republican John Burnett, face off in a debate televised on NY1 at 7 p.m.
- The mayor addresses the annual conference of the International Downtown Association, a group dedicated to the vitality of cities, at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.
- The presumed winner of the public advocate race, Letitia James, talks at noon about her plans for the office.
- Advocates for charter schools (and their children) rally in Brooklyn and march across the Brooklyn Bridge to City Hall, starting at 7:30 a.m.
- The mayoral candidates, Bill de Blasio and Joseph J. Lhota, both speak at an “Urban Solutions to Global Challenges†summit in Battery Park City.
- Mr. Lhota will also speak at an Association for a Better New York breakfast and attend the charter school rally.
- Diana Nyad begins her 48-hour marathon swim in a pool in Herald Square to raise money for Hurricane Sandy victims. 8:30 a.m.
- Ralph Nader, a former Japanese prime minister, and a former Nuclear Regulatory Commission chairman take part in a panel: “The Fukushima-Daiichi Nuclear Accident: Lessons for New York,†at the 92nd Street Y. 9:30 a.m.
- Free lobster rolls in Midtown â€" only 100 of them, though â€" from Luke’s Lobster, to promote the lobster-referencing novel “The Rosie Project.†East 46th Street and Vanderbilt Avenue. 11:30 a.m.
- District Attorney Charles J. Hynes of Brooklyn, defeated in the Democratic primary, formally launches his campaign for re-election as a Republican.
- A photo exhibit, “The Raging ’70s: Latino New York as Seen by El Diario’s Bolivar Arellano,†opens at Columbia University’s Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race. 5 p.m. [Free]
- A panel on the global influence of hip-hop, “I Reminisce (So You Never Forget This)†at the Pregones Theater in the Bronx. 6 p.m. [Free]
- The CBGB Music and Film Festival kicks off with, among other things, the theatrical premiere of “CBGB: The Movie†at Landmark Sunshine Cinema.
- For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.
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