Two police officers stand guard as barrier is erected around the closed Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on Tuesday.

Two police officers stand guard as barrier is erected around the closed Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on Tuesday. The US government shut down Tuesday for the first time in 17 years after a gridlocked Congress failed to reach a federal budget deal amid bitter brinkmanship. Some 800,000 federal workers have been furloughed in a move reminiscent of two previous shutdowns — for six days in November 1995 and 21 days from December that year into early 1996. — AFP