Visiting The Statue Of Liberty Is One Of The Coolest Things I've Done In NYC
I visited the Statue Of Liberty for the first time in my life last weekend. I have to say it was one of the coolest things I've done in New York City. My wife and I got tickets months in advance and we were able to go to the crown. That area has been closed off and on over the past 25 years but if you have an option to go up there, I would absolutely recommend doing that. They do try to limit people (once you go, you can't go back for six months) but because they do, there wasn't even a line on a Saturday. There was one for the ferry there but not once you get inside the statue.
The whole thing (including the ferry ride) was $54/each and that get you into the statue and into the crown as well as access to the museum on Liberty Island (where the Statue of Liberty is) and Ellis Island as well. The museum is where the old torch in my NYC Facts video above resides. They also have a restaurant on Liberty Island which isn't fancy but has all the basics.
The Statue Of Liberty is not about frills and easy access. The stairs in the pedestal are pretty normal staircases but once you get into the statue, you are dealing with this spiral bullshit. This picture also doesn't show how small these stairs are. I wear an 11 shoe and my feet were only half on the stairs. And that top you see in the picture is only halfway to the crown.
It is very cool just walking up the stairs and looking around when you can. This is where the Statue of Liberty's nose is.
Once you get the crown, the stairs lead to a small platform where a couple windows are there to look out of. You can't spend a ton of time up there (they only want you to be there for 10 minutes but the area is pretty small) but the view is incredible.
I talked about it in my NYC Facts video at the beginning of the blog but this was very cool on a personal level. When they refurbished the statue in the mid-80's, they used Broadway stagehands to help weld portions of the statue that needed to be repaired. One of those stagehands was my dad. I was in kindergarten at the time and I do remember him telling me he was going to work on the Statue of Liberty when he went off to work. He said it was one of the coolest things he had ever done.
If you are in the NYC area and have the time to go, I would heavily recommend going. I think I'm even going to go back in six months when I can get tickets again.
