Longtime American Thinker readers may remember reading my article, "Birthplace of American Liberty, Stifled by Obama's Tyranny," on the shutdown of Minute Man National Park – the Old North Bridge during Obama's vindictive government shutdown in October 2013.  With the current Trump shutdown, I was curious to see how the Old North Bridge in Concord, Mass. had fared, particularly since Trump has directed that the shutdown be made as painless as possible.

So last Saturday (the 12th), a chilly January day, I again visited the Old North Bridge in the town where I had grown up.

You may recall that during the Obama shutdown, the parking lots were chained off, and visitors to the Bridge had to park on Monument Street or in a grassy field adjoining The Old Manse, a Trustees of Reservations property, which was not affected during the Obama shutdown:

Fortunately for the few park visitors who were braving the January cold during the Trump shutdown, the Park Service had left the parking lots (both the main lot on Monument Street, visible beyond the upper stone wall in the following photo, and a secondary lot at the visitor center) open for parking:

Good thing, because The Old Manse is closed for the winter, and the trustees have blocked off their small lot and grassy field for parking (in the foreground of the picture) with orange traffic cones (not visible in the picture).

During the Obama shutdown, the Park Service posted "Area Closed" signs (many of them) that effectively said "NO TRESPASSING" (onto land that the public owns):

During the current Trump shutdown, I could locate only one Park Service notice to the public, near the Monument Street entrance to the Bridge:

It effectively says, "So sorry, no services available, enjoy at your own risk."

During the Obama shutdown, "AREA CLOSED" signs were posted where one leaves the trustees' (Old Manse) property to enter onto the park's road to the bridge:

For the Trump shutdown, there are no signs:

There are few visitors in January for the Old North Bridge, where in the photo Daniel Chester French's 1875 Minute Man statue is visible on the far shore of the Concord River.

The Minute Man – enduring symbol of our hard-won freedoms:

Nick Chase is a retired but still very active technical writer, technical editor, computer-programmer, and stock market newsletter-writer.  You can read more of his work on the American Thinker website and at contrariansview.org.