Indepence Hall Finally Liberated?

April 1, 2003 11:50 AM

Indepence Hall Finally Liberated?Even as the streets surrounding Independence Hall (the building where the document declaring US independence from Britain was forged) are finally liberated from barriers erected to prevent terror the historic building has been closed by the National Park Service, who prior to 9/11 couldn't even stop a crazy guy with a hammer.
posted by ringmaster (5 comments total)

I'm left wondering what good it is to keep these historic buildings around if we're not even allowed to get close, much less see inside.
posted by ringmaster at 11:52 AM on April 1, 2003

Well, until they closed it, you could take a tour and everything still, you just had to pass security. If you, for example, drunkenly jumped over the bicycle racks that protect it from terrorists, a power-hungry weevil in a funny hat threatens to arrest you while checking for outstanding warrants. (Not that this happened to me and two former coworkers at all).

That being said, the closure is ridiculous, there are so many far, far more inviting terrorist targets. For once in my life, I agree with the mayor, and think the Park Service is just being petty.
posted by mosch at 12:06 PM on April 1, 2003

I think they should close all the streets in downtown philly... but that said, leave it to our honorable Mayor to piss someone off somewhere.
posted by ph00dz at 12:55 PM on April 1, 2003

Think your mayor's a jerk?
posted by me3dia at 1:29 PM on April 1, 2003

Did you hear about when that kook took a car muffler to the bell? Fuck using a hammer...

For me, opening Chesnut street between 4th & 5th is no major news. Anyone with half a brain is going to avoid driving there like the plague anyways: tourists, horse carts, federal park rangers. What pisses me off is that they're tearing up Deleware Ave again.
posted by password at 1:09 AM on April 2, 2003