Statue of Liberty To Close In October For Renovations and Security Upgrades

Despite calls from several members of Congress to keep the Statue of Liberty open and accessible during renovations and security improvements, the Statue will close to visitors beginning in October and running for about a year.

The National Park Service, which manages the Statue of Liberty National Monument and Ellis Island, said it will close the monument on Oct. 28, after the 125th anniversary of its dedication.

It will be closed the following day, and workers from Joseph A. Natoli Construction Corp., of Pine Brook will install "code-compliant" stairways and upgrade electrical and fire suppression systems, elevators and bathrooms.

The National Parks Service told The Associated Press in August 2010 that it would close the statue's crown to upgrade the stairwells and improve safety at Lady Liberty.

One reason, the service said at the time, was that the newest fire codes mandate escape routes that would allow the statue to be evacuated within two hours, but the current staircases on either side of the pedestal do not meet the standards.

The statue was closed after the Sept. 11 terror attacks for security precautions, but the base reopened in 2004 after a $20 million security upgrade. The observation deck at the top of the crown was reopened on July 4, 2009.

The National Parks Service controls the number of visitors to the crown, saying about 240 people visit each day. About 3.5 million people visit the monument every year.

The main staircase, which is part of the structure holding up the copper skin of the statue within the statue, was designed by none other than Gustaf Eiffel, who designed and built the epoynmous Eiffel Tower in Paris. The spiral staircase is a dizzying trek up to the crown and that's one of the reasons that the crown was closed for so long after 9/11.

While the NPS says that the work will affect a minority of those visiting Liberty Island, the fact is that the NPS has been limiting access to the statue for years, and that's limited the number of people who can potentially be affected by the work. There's no word on whether the construction work will expand the number of people who can make the trek up to the crown.

Statue of Liberty to Close For Renovations in 2011

The Statue of Liberty will close for nine months beginning October 2011 to vastly improve access to the crown. The statue had been off limits to tourists following the 9/11 terror attacks and visitors were able only to view the statue from the pedestal. The statue reopened to tourists earlier this year after security improvements were made.

The statue is scheduled to close in October 2011, after its 125th anniversary, to create a secondary stairwell down from the pedestal. Right now, tourists go up one side and down another. One elevator is installed for tourists who can't or don't want to walk up; firefighters don't use elevators in emergencies.

The statue shut down after the Sept. 11 terror attacks and reopened in 2004 after the $20 million upgrade. The crown remained off-limits, mostly because the narrow, double-helix staircase could not be safely evacuated in an emergency and didn't comply with fire and building codes.

A stairwell to the observation area at the pedestal is forgiving, and air conditioned, with handrails and landings where people can rest of they need to.

From there, those with access to the crown ascend into the statue's body, where it's considerably warmer, aided by handrails. The shallow steps are 19 inches wide and taper at one end. Head clearance is just a little more than 6 feet.

The parks service is upfront about the difficulty of the climb to the top, warning that only people who can walk unassisted should even attempt it and should drink water at least 30 minutes beforehand on hot days. Tourists often suffer heat exhaustion, shortness of breath, panic attacks, claustrophobia and fear of heights.

The crown remains extremely popular, however: No tickets are available until November.

Work will involve building a second staircase to lead up to the crown. For those who haven't made the daunting climb, it's a test of endurance and stamina because the narrow spiral staircase can lead to vertigo and disorientation, to say nothing of heat exhaustion on hot days.

The interior framework of the statue was designed by Gustaf Eiffel, who later created the famous Eiffel Tower in Paris. Construction of the secondary staircase will have to work around Eiffel's design.

Crowning Achievement

Nearly eight years after the 9/11 attacks, the National Park Service and the Department of the Interior are ready to reopen the crown of the Statue of Liberty. It was closed because of security concerns. The crown is accessible only by climbing a 168 step spiral staircase, and if there's an emergency, those in the crown could easily be cut off.

The entire statue was off limits for three years following the 9/11 attacks, until the NPS and Department of the Interior reopened the pedestal and lower observation deck to the public in 2004.

The crown will be reopened to the public on July 4.

The statue regularly received millions of visitors annually and has been a top tourist attraction for New York City. The reopening will likely spur a boost in tourism to see the Statue.

Scare Force One Photos Wont Be Made Public

After claiming last week that the flyby of the VC-25 aircraft that is designated Air Force One when the President is on board was meant to upgrade the file photos of the airplane over national landmarks like the Statue of Liberty, the US Air Force now says that they wont make the photos public.

Are you kidding me? After spending $328,835 [ed: corrected the figure] to make the effort and causing quite the scare and stir in the NY metro area because of the low flying aircraft that no one except a chosen few in the FAA and a few people that the FAA informed, the Air Force and White House owe it to the taxpayers and the New York metro area residents to see what they got for the trouble.

The $328,835 snapshots of an Air Force One backup plane buzzing lower Manhattan last week will not be shown to the public, the White House said yesterday.

"We have no plans to release them," an aide to President Obama told The Post, refusing to comment further.

The sole purpose of the secret photo-op, which sent thousands of New Yorkers running for cover, was to take new publicity shots of the presidential jet over the city.

"The photos . . . are classified -- that's ridiculous," Councilman Peter Vallone Jr., said.

New Yorkers said they could not understand how a president who shares intimate snapshots from the White House could justify classifying these.

"So we're not gonna see the fruits of this cruel joke?" said Frank Antonelli, 39, one of the Wall Street traders spooked by last week's flyover.

Also, after claiming he was angry that the photo op caused such a stir, the President must make the photos available.

This only adds an unnecessary diversion to the White House (which could be precisely why they're going this route?).

UPDATE:
Don Surber links. Thanks! Don also notes that the White House is hell-bent on releasing hundreds of photos showing alleged abuse of detainees. So, it's real easy to find reason to criticize the US (and particularly the prior administration), but if you find reason to criticize the current occupant of the White House, those photos remain classified (although not for long as Michelle Malkin has filed FOIA requests to release the photos and other information stemming from the overflights).

UPDATE:
This is top quality snark, courtesy of Ace of Spades reader C.Jordan:

Perhaps the photos were ruined by people running for their lives in the background?

Let's see if he was right.

Like Ace, I'm wondering why the Administration is stonewalling on this minor issue, particularly because everyone knows that it was a screwup, including by the President's own admission. What does he stand to benefit by maintaining the secrecy of the photos unless there are none to be released at all, and he and his staffers were lying about the purpose of the flyover? Occam's Razor is starting to get the tingles on that front, and unless the Administration can come up with a better answer, this is going to needlessly simmer.

A Crowning Experience

When I was much younger, I had the opportunity to go to the Statue of Liberty and walk up the spiral staircase to the crown. It was well before the 1986 centennial celebrating the completion of the statue and all the rehabilitation work, but the joy of being able to look out of this most recognizable symbol of the US was there every step of the way.

Since 9/11, the crown has been closed to visitors because of concerns about a terrorist attack and the ability to safely evacuate those in the crown. Right now, you can only reach the top of the pedestal and look up into the statue, but you cannot climb to the crown.

Rep. Anthony Weiner is pushing legislation to change this. He's added an amendment to a funding bill to get the National Park Service to reconsider the closure.

The House of Representatives Tuesday prodded parks officials to reopen the crown of the Statue of Liberty to the public.


Rep. Anthony Weiner, (D-N.Y.), for the second year in a row added an amendment to a spending bill giving the National Park Service $1 million to study how to safely reopen the staircase to the statue's crown -- something that has been prohibited since the 2001 terror attacks.

"I'm not going to stop pushing on it and I think it's reasonable to expect that sooner or later they're going to have to answer," he said.

I'm all for reopening the crown, so long as the appropriate security measures are in place. It might mean reworking the interior spaces to permit new staircases to wind its way through the armatures that actually carry the weight of the statue (the current staircase actually carries much of the statue's weight and was designed by Gustaf Eiffel).