New York City turned into a strange netherworld on Tuesday evening, with few taxis and cars on the streets, restaurants closed, and police adorned in pea-green bullet-proof vests directing thousands of onlookers.

Pedestrian traffic was closed off below Houston Street. Many New Yorkers gathered in the streets with cameras and camcorders, snapping pictures of billowing smoke emanating from the fire. "It's a bad day for us," one said.

In the city's theatre district many productions were closed, including the Pulitzer prize-winning drama 'Proof' and the long-run spectacle 'Les Misrčable'. Cinemas reported low bookings and the normally bustling Times Square was almost entirely deserted. In a grim reminder of the day's events, Morgan Stanley's outdoor ticker, which usually displays rolling stock prices, instead flashed an emergency number for its employees, many of whom are thought to have died in the attacks.

Restaurants along 'Restaurant Row' and the popular Ninth Avenue area were either closed for lack of staff, who were unable to make it into Manhattan, or sparsely filled, as New Yorkers displayed a lack of appetite. Bars, however, were thronged with city residents seeking the comfort of friends and a way to numb the shock. Televisions ordinarily tuned to sports broadcasts were all set to CNN.

One bouncer at Revolution, a trendy mid-town bar, said business was slow. "There is a lot of grief and sadness. It's just unified grief. People are talking with each other, even strangers," he said.

Workers at a gym near Times Square said few people in the figure-conscious municipal had turned up for a workout: less than 20 people had come to exercise on a evening that would usually attract some 500 people.

In the hotels, bookings were up as tourists found themselves stranded. The Ameritana Hotel reported that the majority of Tuesday night's guests were among those affected by the shutdown of area airports.

New Yorkers are known to be tough, but Tuesday's act of violence has cast a long shadow, and the city that never sleeps now seems world-weary.