The New York Stock Exchange

If you're touring around lower Manhattan, you have to stop by the New York Stock Exchange, obviously. But a visit to the Exchange is nowhere near as fun as it used to be.

Back before 9/11, you used to be able to go inside the Exchange building to a glass-enclosed viewing balcony up above the trading floor. Not any longer. Now, you need an invitation from a firm with a seat on the Exchange, or you have to be invited in by companies with official business there. And even then they X-ray all of your bags and send you through a metal detector first.

And there are armed guards all around the building, at all hours. At least now the neighborhood is totally safe.

In any case, tourists unfortunately can only view the Exchange from the outside now. It's still an imposing and beautiful buildling and it's worth the trip down there.

Try standing on the steps of Federal Hall, across Wall Street, for a good angle for a photograph of the NYSE facade: