Live Learn Shine On: My New York City: Statue Of Liberty

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

My New York City: Statue Of Liberty

Hello hello!
If you're from the US, have you ever gone to the Statue of Liberty? You know what, being in the USA I was told by almost every 2nd American (or maybe even more than that) that they've never gone there! The same thing happens to me as for Kiev - I guess when you live right there, you take it for granted telling yourself you'd be able to go any time you want. But years go by and you still haven't been those places and keep telling yourself the same thing. Familiar? ;)

So, let me take you on a trip to the Statue of Liberty.
(Today I'm not going to post about the Island though, just the statue for the beginning ;) )
P.S. All pictures belong to me.

The Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World) is a sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, designed by Frédéric Bartholdi and dedicated on October 28, 1886. The statue, a gift to the United States from the people of France, is of a robed female figure representing Libertas, the Roman goddess of freedom, who bears a torch and a tabula ansata (a tablet evoking the law) upon which is inscribed the date of the American Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776. A broken chain lies at her feet. The statue has become an icon of freedom and of the United States.
After the September 11 attacks in 2001, it was closed for reasons of safety and security; the pedestal reopened in 2004 and the statue in 2009, with limits on the number of visitors allowed to ascend to the crown. The statue, including the pedestal and base, closed beginning on October 29, 2011, for up to a year, so that a secondary staircase and other safety features can be installed; Liberty Island remains open. Public access to the balcony surrounding the torch has been barred for safety reasons since 1916. (I was there in 2008 and we were not allowed to go up to the crown though...)

A ceremony of dedication was held on October 28, 1886. President Grover Cleveland, the former New York governor, presided over the event. On the morning of the dedication, a parade was held in New York City; estimates of the number of people who watched it ranged from several hundred thousand to a million. President Cleveland headed the procession, then stood in the reviewing stand to see bands and marchers from across America. General Stone was the grand marshal of the parade. The route began at Madison Square, once the venue for the arm, and proceeded to Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan by way of 5th Avenue and Broadway, with a slight detour so the parade could pass in front of the World building on Park Row. As the parade passed the New York Stock Exchange, traders threw ticker tape from the windows, beginning the New York tradition of the ticker-tape parade.
Shortly after the dedication, the Cleveland Gazette, an African American newspaper, suggested that the statue's torch not be lit until the United States became a free nation "in reality".

So, of course you get on the island by boat. Usually first stop is the Ellis Island, and then the bost takes you to the Liberty Island, where the Statue is.

So, here we are, getting off the boat - Welcome to the Liberty Island! :)

This is the view while going up to the Statue on the "square"

So, there's a museum, which tells you the whole history of building the statue, putting it together, transporting, all the events you need to know about, all the facts, even the real size pieces of it to give you an idea how HUGE it is: