Day 3, Mar 30, 2014, Sunday:
Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, Trinity Church, Brooklyn Bridge
7 am: Had breakfast at our Hotel
Vetiver.
Checked out, kept our bags with the reception and were off
to the Ferry terminal.to catch the ferry to Liberty island. We had
already booked pedestal access tickets online on the official website
of Statue of Liberty.
The statue is
situated in Upper New York Bay on Liberty Island south
of Ellis Island, which together comprise the Statue of
Liberty National Monument. In
1956 Bedloe’s Island was renamed Liberty Island, and in 1965
nearby Ellis Island, once the country’s major immigration
station, was added to the monument’s jurisdiction,
The ferries, which depart from Liberty
State Park in Jersey City and the
Battery in Lower Manhattan, also stop at Ellis Island when
it is open to the public
There is no admission fee for either
the Statue of Liberty or Ellis Island, but the ferry ride (which goes
round-trip from Battery Park to Liberty Island to Ellis Island) costs
$18.50 (includes entrance to the statue's pedestal and museum) or
$21.50 (also includes access to the statue's crown via a narrow,
twisting staircase). [2014 prices].
Public access to the balcony around the
torch has been barred since 1916.
Visitors intending to enter the
statue's base and pedestal must obtain a complimentary
museum/pedestal ticket along with their ferry ticket.Those wishing to
climb the staircase within the statue to the crown purchase a special
ticket, which may be reserved up to a year in advance. A total of 240
people per day are permitted to ascend: ten per group, three groups
per hour.
Ferries leave from Battery Park at the
southern tip of Manhattan in New York City (and from Liberty
State Park in New Jersey) every 30–45 minutes depending on the time
of year (buy your tickets online at www.statuecruises.com).
There are often long lines, so arrive early, especially if you have a
timed-entry ticket (strongly recommended; tickets sell out,
especially to see the crown)..
On the ferry to Liberty island.
9 am we were at Statue of liberty
island.
Statue of Liberty is a
colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty
Island in New York Harbor .
The copper statue, a gift
from the people of France to the people of the United
States, that honors "the Alliance of the two Nations in
achieving the Independence of the United States of America and
attests their abiding friendship."
was designed by French sculptor Bartholdi and its metal
framework was built by Gustave Eiffel [creator of Eiffel tower].
The statue is a figure of Libertas,
a robed Roman liberty goddess.
Standing 305 feet (93 metres) high
including its pedestal, the lady holds a torch in her raised
right hand and a tablet bearing the adoption date of the Declaration
of Independence (July 4, 1776) in her left. A broken
shackle and chain lie at her feet as she walks forward, commemorating
the recent national abolition of slavery.
The torch, which measures 29 feet (8.8
metres) from the flame tip to the bottom of the handle, is accessible
via a 42-foot (12.8-metre) service ladder inside the arm (this ascent
was open to the public from 1886 to 1916).
An elevator carries visitors to the
observation deck in the pedestal, which may also be reached by
stairway, and a spiral staircase leads to an observation platform in
the figure’s crown
the statue became an icon of freedom
and of the United States, seen as a symbol of welcome to immigrants
arriving by sea
. A plaque at the pedestal’s entrance is inscribed with a sonnet,
“The New Colossus” (1883) by Emma Lazarus.
It was written to help raise money for
the pedestal, and it reads:
Not like the brazen giant of
Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Bartholdi modeled the woman’s face
after that of his mother, he hammered large copper sheets to create
the statue’s “skin” (using a technique called repousse). To
create the skeleton on which the skin would be assembled, he called
on Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel, designer of Paris’ Eiffel Tower.
Eiffel built a skeleton out of iron pylon and steel that allowed the
copper skin to move independently, a necessary condition for the
strong winds it would endure in the chosen location of New
York Harbor.
In 1885, Bartholdi completed the
statue, which was disassembled, packed in more than 200 crates, and
shipped to New York,
Height of copper statue 150 ft, 46 m
Height of hand 16 ft, 5 m
Right arm length 42 ft
Thickness of waist 35 ft
Index finger 8 ft,
Weight of copper used in statue 60000
pounds, 27 ton
Weight of steel used in statue 250000,
113 ton
Total weight of statue 450000 pounds,
200 tonnes
120,000 contributors, most of
whom gave less than a dollar had helped with the funds for making the
pedestal in the US. Over four months, workers reassembled the statue
and mounted it on the pedestal; With pedestal the height is 305 ft,
93 m
The statue was dedicated on October 28,
1886.
By the early 20th century, the
oxidation of the Statue of Liberty’s copper skin through exposure
to rain, wind and sun had given the statue a distinctive green color.
On the pedestal.
Ellis Island:
In 1892, the U.S. government opened a
federal immigration station on Ellis Island, located near
Bedloe’s Island in Upper New York Bay. Between 1892 and 1954, some
12 million immigrants were processed on Ellis Island before receiving
permission to enter the United States. From 1900-14, during the peak
years of its operation, some 5,000 to 10,000 people passed through
every day.
Looming above New York Harbor nearby,
the Statue of Liberty provided a majestic welcome to those passing
through Ellis Island.
This is the Immigrants statue...
Created by sculptor Luis Sanguino in
1973, "The Immigrants" is a bronze and Minnesota Rideau Red
granite sculpture located at the South end of Eisenhower Mall in
Lower Manhattan's Battery Park. The inscription on the base of the
sculpture reads: "DEDICATED TO THE PEOPLE OF ALL
NATIONS WHO ENTERED AMERICA THROUGH CASTLE GARDEN IN MEMORY
OF SAMUEL RUDIN 1896-1975 WHOSE PARENTS ARRIVED IN AMERICA
IN 1883"
National Museum of the American Indian here...
Report continues here:
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