NEW YORK — The Statue of Liberty’s crown, with its exhilarating view of New York’s skyscrapers, bridges and seaport, is reopening on Independence Day for the first time since terrorists leveled the World Trade Center just across the city’s harbor.
Safety and security issues have been addressed and 50,000 people, 10 at a time, will get to visit the 265-foot-high crown in the next two years before it is closed again for renovation, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Friday.
"On July 4, we are giving America a special gift,” Salazar said at a news conference on nearby Ellis Island. "For the first time in nearly eight years, we will once again be able to have one of the most awesome experiences in the world.”
Interior Department officials said they had not determined how to choose who climbs to the top. Spokeswoman Kendra Barkoff said a lottery is one possibility.
Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., who has for years pushed for the crown to be reopened, once called the decision to close it off "a partial victory for the terrorists.” On Friday, he said he sent a letter to President Barack Obama, inviting the president to be the first person to tour the reopened crown on July 4.
Salazar said the decision to reopen it was based on a National Park Service analysis that included recommendations on reducing risk to visitors. Only 30 visitors an hour will be allowed to visit the crown, and they will be brought up in groups of 10, guided by a park ranger. Also, the handrails on the stairway will be raised.
On Friday, Salazar also announced that $25 million in stimulus funding will be used for improvements at Ellis Island, the historic immigration center in New York Harbor. The work will include stabilizing the 1908 Baggage and Dormitory Building, which housed immigrants awaiting processing, and repairing the island’s crumbling seawall.
by the associated press
Safety and security issues have been addressed and 50,000 people, 10 at a time, will get to visit the 265-foot-high crown in the next two years before it is closed again for renovation, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Friday.
"On July 4, we are giving America a special gift,” Salazar said at a news conference on nearby Ellis Island. "For the first time in nearly eight years, we will once again be able to have one of the most awesome experiences in the world.”
Interior Department officials said they had not determined how to choose who climbs to the top. Spokeswoman Kendra Barkoff said a lottery is one possibility.
Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., who has for years pushed for the crown to be reopened, once called the decision to close it off "a partial victory for the terrorists.” On Friday, he said he sent a letter to President Barack Obama, inviting the president to be the first person to tour the reopened crown on July 4.
Salazar said the decision to reopen it was based on a National Park Service analysis that included recommendations on reducing risk to visitors. Only 30 visitors an hour will be allowed to visit the crown, and they will be brought up in groups of 10, guided by a park ranger. Also, the handrails on the stairway will be raised.
On Friday, Salazar also announced that $25 million in stimulus funding will be used for improvements at Ellis Island, the historic immigration center in New York Harbor. The work will include stabilizing the 1908 Baggage and Dormitory Building, which housed immigrants awaiting processing, and repairing the island’s crumbling seawall.
by the associated press
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