Baseball fans arriving in St. Louis for the start of the playoffs this week can scratch off one potential side visit — the Gateway Arch.
The lingering dispute over President Barack Obama's health care law prompted a partial federal government shutdown Tuesday. Nationwide, some 800,000 federal workers are off the job. Services deemed critical, such as law enforcement and disaster assistance, continued, but the shutdown idled many offices and facilities.
Among them was the Arch, the 630-foot-tall monument to westward expansion on the St. Louis riverfront. The Arch draws about 4 million tourists every year, making it Missouri's largest tourist attraction excluding casinos.
Many other government-run facilities and offices around the state are closed, too, including Army Corps of Engineers-operated campgrounds, boat ramps and visitors centers.