BY TERESE LOEB KREUZER | The Statue of Liberty, whose exterior is one of the most familiar sights in the world, has a remarkable interior, which is visited by relatively few people compared with the hundreds of thousands a year who set foot on Liberty Island or see it as they enter and leave New York harbor. There are just a few more days to glimpse the statue’s interior before it closes to the public for a year.
The Statue of Liberty (formally known as “Liberty Enlightening the World,”) a gift from France to the United States, was supposed to open in 1876 to celebrate the United States’ first hundred years. However, there were problems with funding and also political squabbles. Finally, on Oct. 28, 1886, U.S. President Grover Cleveland unveiled the statue amid a flotilla of three hundred boats in the harbor. The day was declared a holiday and around a million people lined the streets of New York to witness a parade of soldiers, firemen and marching bands. Downtown Manhattan’s first ticker tape parade took place that day.
This year, on Oct. 28, there will again be a celebration with music, speeches and fireworks and then the next day the pedestal will close in order to update the statue’s mechanical and electrical systems, to install new elevators and to reconfigure the interior staircases to make them safer. The $27.25 million refurbishment is expected to take a year to complete. During this time, Liberty Island itself will remain open with tours led by National Park Rangers, an audio guide available in nine languages, stunning vistas of the statue and of New York harbor, a restaurant with good, well-priced food and a gift shop.
But the interior of the pedestal of the statue really is special. On the ground floor, vsitors are greeted by the lady’s original torch dating from 1886. On the second floor are most of the museum’s artifacts and photos. A gigantic, copper-clad face and foot from the time of the 1986 restoration, fabricated in the same way as the original with copper sheathing, show the dimensions of the statue next to puny humans.
Photos depict the genesis of the statue from the time it was proposed by French scholar Edouard de Laboulaye, who wanted to recognize the affinity of France and the United States in the quest for liberty, through the years that sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi mused on the project. The exhibit includes his drawings and models and a record of Bartholdi’s visit to New York harbor in 1871 where he saw what was then called Bedloe’s Island for the first time and said that’s where his statue should be placed.
Bartholdi was taken with the immensity of the United States and wanted to make something equally immense. His passion and tenacity are recorded in photos and words as is the genius of the engineer who made Bartholdi’s vision possible. Gustave Eiffel, best known for the Eiffel Tower in Paris, came up with a method for making the 151-foot-tall statue strong but flexible enough to withstand New York harbor’s biting winds. “It will stand,” he said simply of his extraordinary design.
Visitors can currently ascend to the top of the pedestal (whose architecture, funding and fabrication are also described in the exhibit) and peer through portals in the ceiling to Eiffel’s support structure. A narrow, spiral staircase goes even further up to the statue’s crown. Special tickets were required to ascend the stairs. No more are available until the statue reopens in around a year.
A walkway on the exterior of the pedestal affords panoramic views of Manhattan and of New York harbor.
Entry to the monument pedestal is by Pedestal/Museum ticket only, available with the purchase of a reserved ticket online from Statue Cruises at www.statuecruises.com or by calling (201) 604-2800.
Only 3,000 pedestal tickets are available a day. There are just a few chances left.
