Closed since 9/11, the crown again will welcome a limited number of visitors
Especially after the recent ill-conceived recent photo op of a "spare" Air Force One flying low over New York Harbor and the Statue of Liberty, it is refreshing that the crown will reopen to visitors on July 4. It has been closed since September 11, 2001. The official reason was given as "fire safety," but most of us believe that it was part of the previous administration's promoting an ongoing climate of fear. The airport threat level, after all, has been "orange" since this silly recorded alert was introduced.
Former Colorado senator and now Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced,“This Statue of Liberty really is about hope and optimism for America, it’s also about jobs that come with tourism all over this country, and it’s about President Obama’s agenda. So today we’re announcing that on the Fourth of July, we will open up the crown of the Statue of Liberty here in New York and New Jersey to the entire people of America in a way that we’ll be able to manage the crowds that come into this place."
Just to cover bases staked out by the paranoid, he said,“We have conducted a very comprehensive life-safety review for the statue itself and for the pedestal and there are improvements that are gonna have to be put in place. We’ll put some of those in place before we open it up on the Fourth of July. We’ll then go through a two-year period where the crown will be opened up, where the public — it will be about 30 people an hour that can come up here, it will be managed. And then following that, we’re going to go through a more major rehabilitation that ultimately will increase the number of people who can come up here to about 200,000.”
Timed passes will be distributed on a lottery-style basis, and access is ranger-guided. Even access to the statue's pedestal has been seriously limited to those who have a applied in advance for free monument pass and pick up the morning of the visit. Call 866-STATUE-4 or 212-269-5755. Oh, how unfortunately different this is from my childhood in Connecticut and young adult years in New York, when access to the pedestal and the statue was limited only by visitors' willingness to stand in line and climb a lot of stairs.
The ferries to Liberty Island board their last passengers well before the park's daily closing. There is no entrance fee to the park, which is open from 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Park Service passes are not good for ferry fares. Due to the park's security procedures, visitors are advised to allow ample time for their visits. Ferry ticket prices from Battery Park are adult, $11:50; senior (62 and over), $9:50; child (4-12), $4.50, under 4, free.
Former Colorado senator and now Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced,“This Statue of Liberty really is about hope and optimism for America, it’s also about jobs that come with tourism all over this country, and it’s about President Obama’s agenda. So today we’re announcing that on the Fourth of July, we will open up the crown of the Statue of Liberty here in New York and New Jersey to the entire people of America in a way that we’ll be able to manage the crowds that come into this place."
Just to cover bases staked out by the paranoid, he said,“We have conducted a very comprehensive life-safety review for the statue itself and for the pedestal and there are improvements that are gonna have to be put in place. We’ll put some of those in place before we open it up on the Fourth of July. We’ll then go through a two-year period where the crown will be opened up, where the public — it will be about 30 people an hour that can come up here, it will be managed. And then following that, we’re going to go through a more major rehabilitation that ultimately will increase the number of people who can come up here to about 200,000.”
Timed passes will be distributed on a lottery-style basis, and access is ranger-guided. Even access to the statue's pedestal has been seriously limited to those who have a applied in advance for free monument pass and pick up the morning of the visit. Call 866-STATUE-4 or 212-269-5755. Oh, how unfortunately different this is from my childhood in Connecticut and young adult years in New York, when access to the pedestal and the statue was limited only by visitors' willingness to stand in line and climb a lot of stairs.
The ferries to Liberty Island board their last passengers well before the park's daily closing. There is no entrance fee to the park, which is open from 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Park Service passes are not good for ferry fares. Due to the park's security procedures, visitors are advised to allow ample time for their visits. Ferry ticket prices from Battery Park are adult, $11:50; senior (62 and over), $9:50; child (4-12), $4.50, under 4, free.
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