Statue of Liberty

The Statue of Liberty is the copper figure of Libertas on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, a gift from France dedicated on 28 October 1886 and run by the National Park Service. Seeing it takes half a day by ferry from The Battery in Manhattan or Liberty State Park in New Jersey, usually combined with Ellis Island.

The idea for the statue came from the French jurist Édouard de Laboulaye, who in 1865 proposed a monument to celebrate American independence and the end of slavery. The sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi designed it, and Gustave Eiffel's firm engineered the iron skeleton that carries the copper skin. France paid for the statue and the United States for the pedestal, with Joseph Pulitzer's newspaper The World raising the last funds through small donations in 1885.

The statue was built in Paris, taken apart into 350 pieces and shipped across the Atlantic in 214 crates in 1885. It went up on Bedloe's Island, renamed Liberty Island in 1956, next to the immigration station later opened on Ellis Island, and it became the first sight of America for millions of arriving immigrants. The copper skin, about 2.4 millimetres thick, turned green as it oxidised over the following decades. It became a national monument in 1924 and a World Heritage Site in 1984.

The figure represents Libertas, the Roman goddess of liberty. She holds a torch in her right hand and a tablet in her left inscribed with the date July IV MDCCLXXVI, while she steps over a broken chain and shackle. The granite pedestal, designed by Richard Morris Hunt, rests on the walls of Fort Wood, an earlier star-shaped fort.

The torch has been closed to visitors since the Black Tom explosion of July 1916 in New Jersey damaged the statue. The original torch was replaced during the restoration for the 1986 centenary and is now displayed in the Statue of Liberty Museum, which opened in 2019. A spiral staircase of 162 steps climbs from the top of the pedestal to the crown, which has small windows looking over the harbour.

There is no park entrance fee; the ticket is for the official ferry, which also stops at Ellis Island and is where pedestal and crown reservations are made. Crown places are limited and sell out months ahead in summer. Take an early ferry to beat the security queues, and allow at least half a day for both islands. Large bags are not allowed in the pedestal or crown, and lockers are available on the island.

The islands open at 9:00 and close at 17:00, with closures on Thanksgiving Day and 25 December. In Manhattan the nearest subway stops are South Ferry on the 1, Whitehall Street on the R and W, and Bowling Green on the 4 and 5, all a short walk from Castle Clinton. New Jersey visitors can take the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail to Liberty State Park, which also has paid parking. The ferries, island grounds, museum and pedestal are wheelchair accessible, and only the crown requires the stairs.

Statue City Cruises is the only authorised ticket seller and the only ferry to the islands. The time printed on the ticket is when to join the security line, not a sailing time, and every visitor passes airport-style screening at The Battery or Liberty State Park, where waits can pass an hour on summer days, weekends and holidays. General Admission covers both islands and both museums but not the pedestal or the crown, which need separate reservations; the crown is a climb of 162 steps from the statue's feet with no lift.