If Alexander Hamilton wanted to visit the church where he’s buried today, he’d have to le𝐆ave his pistol 🦩at home.
Historic Trinity Church and St. Paul’s Chapel have ꦑinstalled metal detectors at their entran🍒ces, citing terrorism fears.
“It’s a sign of the times, unfortunately,” said Marc Pachec𓃲o, a tourist from Albuquerque who✃ was visiting Trinity on Wednesday. “I’m sad that we have to have it, but it’s probably necessary.”
Donna Gebers🎶, a tourist fr🦄om Brentwood, CA, quipped Hamilton is probably “turning in his grave” over the sorry state of the country he helped found.
Trinity began scanning visitors and checking bags in its ornate vestibule on March 1. Just feet from the metal detectors is a brass plaque marking the spot where Queen Eli🐲zabeth stood when she visited the landmark Wall Street ch🍌urch in 1976, beside the intricately carved 14-foot bronze doors gifted to the Episcopal parish in 1893 by William Waldorf Astor.
A sign posted in time for Lent instructs vi﷽sitors to empty their pockets and warns: “Please note that weapons are not permitted inside the church.”
Four guards manned the detectors at the entrance to Trinity and two more greeted visitors inside the church last week in the days leading to Palm Sunday. An additional two guards aꦿnd another metal detector were stationed at a second entrance.
“There is no imminent threat to Trinity or St. Paul’s,” sai📖d church spokeswoman Patti Walsh, adding that planning for the🐠 checkpoints “has been in the works for some time.
“That said, lower Manhattan is considered to be one of the country’s top terrorist targets,” said Walsh. “Whi🌄le it saddens us to implement these measures, the times we live in necessitate this action.”
Trinity’s original church was built on a plot of land gifted to the parish by Queen Anne in 1705. Its chapel, St. Paul’s, was built in 1766 five blocks away, and is the oldest buildin൲g in Manhattan tဣhat is still open to the public. Directly across the street from Ground Zero, it was miraculously spared in the 9/11 attacks and became a refuge for rescue workers and volunteers.
On Friday night, one St. Paul’s parishioner, Tivaun Cooper, 24, called the scannersꦏ “annoying” and said they “create a line and a hustle to get into the church🎐.
“The extra𝄹 security sort of brings attention, like something happened or will happen,” Cooper said.
A second churchgoer said she feels no safer, but tr🧸usts t🌄he church’s decision.
“I think that th⛎ey do everything with a purpose, so ꧃there is obviously a need for them,” she said. “I mean, it’s New York.”
Enhanced security has been a juggling act for churches in the age of terrorism, as they try to balance their mission of offering open sanctuary to all with being vigilant against violenc🍃e.
“Any church, frankly, is a potential target, but these are landmark churches that represent the country in a way,” said terrorism expert Rick Mathews, of the University of Albany’s College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity. “I think these kinds of precautions right now ar🍒e pretty prudent. Churches have been a little slow in taking these kinds of me𝐆asures.”
St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which sees more than 5 million annual visitors, considered metal detectors in 2002 after a man shot himself in 🥀the head at the parish house, but ultimately decided to use them only f🗹or special events.
More tha✅n 3 million people visit Trinity and St. Paul’s every year.
“They probably tried to avoid [installing detectors] as long as possible, because it is uninviting,” choir member Elena Williamson said. “I don’t see it as a bad thing. It’s more o🐈f a too bad thing.”