The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island

The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Review

For millions of immigrants, the first glimpse of America was the Statue of Liberty. You get a taste of the thrill they must have experienced as you approach Liberty Island on the ferry from Battery Park and witness the statue growing from a vaguely defined figure on the horizon into a towering, stately colossus. You're likely to share the boat ride with people from all over the world, which lends an additional dimension to the trip. The statue may be purely a tourist attraction, but the tourists it attracts are a wonderfully diverse group. Liberty Enlightening the World, as the statue is officially named, was presented to the United States in 1886 as a gift from France. The 152-foot-tall figure was sculpted by Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi and erected around an iron skeleton engineered by Gustav Eiffel. It stands atop an 89-foot pedestal designed by Richard Morris Hunt, with Emma Lazarus's sonnet "The New Colossus" ("Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses") inscribed on a bronze plaque at the base. Over the course of time the statue has become precisely what its creators dreamed it would be: the single-most powerful symbol of American ideals and, as such, one of the world's great monumental sculptures. Inside the statue's pedestal is a museum that's everything it should be: informative, entertaining, and quickly viewed. Highlights include the original flame (which was replaced because of water damage), full-scale replicas of Lady Liberty's face and one of her feet, Bartholdi's alternative designs for the statue, and a model of Eiffel's intricate framework. You're allowed access to the museum only as part of one of the free tours of the promenade (which surrounds the base of the pedestal) or the observatory (at the pedestal's top).

The tours are limited to 3,000 participants a day. The only way to guarantee entry to the pedestal (which includes the museum) is with an advance purchase of a Reserve Ticket with Monument or Pedestal Pass, which should be purchased at least two days to two weeks before your visit (they can be reserved up to 180 days in advance by phone or online). No tickets are sold on the island; however, tickets are sold daily at Castle Clinton Monument in Battery Park, and at Liberty State Park in New Jersey. Visitors who are unable to acquire a Reserve Ticket with Monument pass can still be issued a No Monument Access Pass, allowing them to walk around the island on the ground level without access to the monument. The narrow, double-helix stairs leading to the statue's crown closed after 9/11, but access reopened on July 4, 2009. Approximately 240 people are allowed to visit the crown each day. Tickets are available online, but are usually booked well in advance up to three or four months ahead of the visit, so book early for crown tickets. If you can't get tickets to the crown, you get a good look at the statue's inner structure on the observatory tour. From the observatory itself there are fine views of the harbor and an up-close (but totally uncompromising) glimpse up Lady Liberty's dress. If you're on one of the tours, you'll go through a security check more thorough than any airport screening, and you'll have to deposit any bags in a locker. Liberty Island has a pleasant outdoor café for refueling. The only disappointment is the gift shop, which sells trinkets little better than those available from street vendors.