Washington, D.C., is a city of things inaccessible

Washington, D.C. is a city of things inaccessible — the street signs almost always give notice too late, or too vaguely — but even important buildings like the Supreme Court and Congress have shuttered their grand entrances to the public. From the Associated Press:

The vanishing welcome of Washington’s front doors is evident along most of Constitution Avenue, a thoroughfare and parade route lined on one side by the monuments and grounds of the National Mall and on the other by the headquarters of federal agencies and national or global institutions.
A lone guard on the great lawn of the Federal Reserve says the front is “pretty much off limits” because times have changed. The massive eagle above the entrance looks down on a chain stretching across the staircase and security barriers out by the sidewalk.