Even the pedestrian ramp on the Williamsburg bridge was blocked The cops who were picked to breakfast with GW marching down Pitt Street

This morning saw Grand Street barricaded all the way from the FDR Drive to Essex Street, with the 8-block radius around the Pitt Street firehouse completely blocked to cars, bikes and pedestrians.

So I have no idea what the breakfast the president was having with New York’s finest looked like. There was a huge blue curtain all around that part of the street, and you couldn’t even get onto the bike ramp on the Williamsburg Bridge, to try and snap a picture.

I circled the area, I tried to talk my way into the action zone – forgedaboutit. You had to work for the big outfits to score a presidential flapjack this morning.

The entrance to Pitt Street, at Grand, like all the other strategic blocks, was blocked by huge trucks, packed with sand. The message was clear: GW Bush is the president with the greatest need for self-preservation since Abe Lincoln said, Mary, honey, let’s take a show tonight.

Then, out the morning fog they emerged, the 25 Port Authority cops invited to breakfast with Dubya, and made it all seem real again. For an instant it didn’t matter that this breakfast was held in honor of the least popular chief executive in the history of the union. These men and women came to be acknowledged, and you couldn’t avoid the urge to salute them.

It’s a barricaded LoHo area this morning, until noon – so say the cops – but it was worth it so we don’t become another Dallas…