June 30, 2011
Statue of Liberty crown on track to close Nov. 1 for fixes
Editor’s note: See Fireworks, webcams set for Statue of Liberty 125th party for the Oct. 28, 2011 fireworks.
The crown, museum and pedestal of the Statue of Liberty remains on schedule to close Nov. 1 for renovations, a National Park Service spokeswoman today confirmed to NewYorkology, and only a handful of tickets remain on sale for dates before Lady Liberty has a little work done.
The statue, which will celebrate its 125th birthday on October 28 this year, will reopen to the public in September 2012, said Jane Ahern the Chief of Public Affairs for the Statue of Liberty National Monument.
Update as of July 28: The closing date has been moved up to Oct. 29, according to the National Park Service website. All crown tickets prior to the closure have sold out, according to Statue Cruises. “Cancelled tickets are made available again through the website and phone reservations,” a Statue Cruises spokesperson told NewYorkology via email. “Typically they get picked up pretty fast.”
 The steps up to the crown closed after Sept. 11, 2001 and only reopened July 4, 2009 with strict limits on the number of people allowed up the narrow double-helix staircase. The upcoming construction was first announced in May 2009.
The request for proposals, which remains out to bid until July 8, calls for new stairs, a new elevator and wheelchair lift, new security system and other elements. The National Park Service was criticized well before the Sept. 11 terror attacks that the stairs packed with tourists would be difficult to evacuate in an emergency.
When the interior portions of the statue close Nov. 1, the remainder of Liberty Island will still be open to visitors. “Since the work is being done inside, views of Lady Liberty from land and sea will remain unobstructed,” the National Park Service states on its website, which points out that 70 percent of current visitors to the island do not reserve tickets to see the museum inside the statue or travel to the crown.
Currently only 240 people are allowed access to the crown each day. A total of 3,000 are allowed inside to the museum and out on the statue’s pedestal, according to National Park Service data.
Tickets can be booked only through Statue Cruises, the only ferry company licensed to take visitors to Liberty and Ellis Island. Currently, crown tickets are only available for a handful of dates in October, however returns do pop up on occasion.
There are no plans to reopen access to the statue’s torch, which has been closed to the public since 1916 when German saboteurs blew up an arms depot in New Jersey, which damaged Lady Liberty’s arm.
Picture credits: Amy Langfield/NewYorkology.
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June 30, 2011 2:53 PM in Architecture, Kids, Museums
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