A Visit With Lady Liberty

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Though we didn’t have a white Christmas, 3-4” of light powder fell on the day we planned to leave Lin’s for our return trip to Las Vegas. While we packed, Lin shoveled and Mark used their snowblower for the first time this year. The local woodsy area had taken on that winter wonderland look that always enraptures me with its pristine beauty.

The local church looked especially beautiful with a new blanket of snow.

It was 18F (-8C) and with wind chill 8F (-13C). Brrr. Remarkably, the roads were wet, but not slippery. We passed by the iconic ‘Big Blue Bug’ perched on an extermination company’s rooftop in Providence. He was all decked out for the holidays. I look for him every time we pass through this area.

We passed into Connecticut and by then the roads were dry, but the blanket of snow magic continued. Even the interstate views were lovely. From Connecticut, we crossed Into New York State and over the Hudson and just like that, we were in New Jersey.

This is not the most direct route for a return to Las Vegas, I agree. However, we’ve never been known for direct routes and we had an extremely good reason to be heading to Jersey City, New Jersey… one of my Christmas gifts! Ever since I wrote a blog in October about the Statue of Liberty, I’ve had a yearning to go visit her. I put it on my bucket list and I mentioned it to David at the time, but then, with all the holidays and travel planning, I promptly forgot about it.  He didn’t.

In all our travels, neither one of us has actually visited Liberty Island for an up close encounter with Lady Liberty, arguably one of the most famous and iconic statues in the world. We’ve been close… we sailed by her in Nine of Cups a couple of times, but never saw her up close. David’s gift changed all that.

We stayed in a nearby hotel and wended our way via a circuitous route through Jersey City to Liberty State Park. The entrance drive to the park, Freedom Way, is cobblestone and lined with trees. With its newly acquired blanket of snow, it was a lovely wrapping for my gift.

We bundled up in layers, utilizing all that cold weather gear we’d purchased for our February trip to Fairbanks a couple of years ago. David had purchased tickets on line and we’d uploaded the Liberty Island app which was helpful. He’d tried to purchase tickets for a ‘crown’ tour, but nothing was available till March. We did, however, have advance tickets for the ‘pedestal’ tour which was now sold out.

Tickets, by the way, were $22.50/pp for seniors which included the roundtrip ferry ride to Ellis and Liberty Islands and general admission to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island National Monument plus the pedestal access. General admission to the park is free, but the only access to the island is via Statue City Cruises which leaves from Liberty Park in New Jersey and The Battery in Manhattan and from which tickets must be purchased. There was ample parking in the Liberty State Park lot which cost us $8/day.

We checked in the ticket office which is housed in the historic Central Railroad Terminal of New Jersey to see if there were any last minute crown tour tix available (there weren’t) and proceeded to the ferry line. A TSA-type security check is required before entering the ferry and with all our layers required for removal (hats, gloves, scarves, parka, sweater, belts, watch… you know the drill), it took us a while to disrobe and get dressed again, but the ferry was waiting for us when we finally made it to the embarkation pier.

Historic Central Railroad Terminal of New Jersey

The ferry had three levels… two interior areas on the first and second deck with bench seats and a third deck outside with bench seats. We chose inside and got primo seats right up front beside a window. We were surprised at the number of people waiting for the ferry and aboard the ferry… hundreds, I’d reckon. People of all ages, sizes, colors, cultures. We heard so many different languages being spoken… some of which we recognized and some of which we didn’t… Spanish, French, Italian, German, Portuguese, Eastern European, Asian. We even met a family from Africa’s Ivory Coast. The whole world seemed enchanted by Miss Liberty’s charm and we couldn’t wait to meet her.

Boarding the Miss Freedom headed for Ellis Island

The ferry ride from the Liberty dock to Ellis Island is about 15 minutes. Arriving at the Ellis Island dock, I tired to imagine how thousand of immigrants must have felt when they arrived. Most had only the clothes on their backs and a few belongings. Many spoke no English. They must have been terrified, but oh so brave to leave their home countries in hopes of finding a better life for themselves and their families in America.

Approaching Ellis Island

From the park’s brochure we learned that ‘it is believed approximately 40% of Americans can claim ancestors who arrived in the U.S. through Ellis Island.” Sometimes dubbed the “Gateway to the New World”, Ellis Island operated as America’s largest immigration processing center from 1892 to 1954, processing ~12 million immigrants over that period. The facility closed in 1954 and was left vacant for 30+ years, neglected and deteriorating. In the 1980s, extensive restoration revived the buildings and now the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration occupies one of the main buildings.

The museum is basically the only area open to the public, but its three levels of information, archives, photos and memorabilia are eye opening. We watched the park’s movie before beginning our of the museum.

The Great Hall or Registry Room once contained rows and rows of benches where immigrants sat patiently, waiting to be interviewed and examined before being allowed to enter the country.

We peeked in dormitories, viewed miscellaneous ‘treasures’ that immigrants had carried with them to America, were educated in the island’s restoration process, and viewed hundreds of photos of immigrants who passed through this facility.

12 million+ immigrants passed through Ellis Island’s immigration facilities

View of Liberty from Ellis Island Ferry Dock

The ferry ride from Ellis to Liberty Island is only 5-7 minutes long.

View of ferry approach to Liberty Island… through dirty ferry windows

We disembarked at the dock and once we had our bearings, made our way immediately to the pedestal. Again, we were required to pass through a TSA-type security check. Once inside, we opted to climb the 195 steps to the pedestal observation area rather than wait in line for the elevator. We huffed a bit, but made it without difficulty. Signs at each level reminded us how many steps there were left to climb.

The small area atop the steps was very crowded and Rangers herded the lot of us to the outside observation deck which was also extremely crowded. Though cold and windy, the views made up for any discomfort… the Manhattan skyline,  Ellis Island and New York Harbor lay before us.

Ellis Island view from Liberty’s Pedestal observation deck

New York Harbor

Manhattan Skyline

Before descending those 195 steps we’d just climbed, we had the opportunity to look up inside the statue. It was constructed with steps all the way up to the crown and the torch. A limited number of visitors can access the crown via a 162 step, narrow, steep spiral staircase. It was August Bartholdi who conceived the design for “Liberty Enlightening the World’ and oversaw her construction. It was Gustave Eiffel, of Eiffel Tower fame, who designed and engineered the internal structure of the monument.

Looking up Lady Liberty’s Skirt

On July 30, 1916, German agents blew up the Black Tom railroad yard in New Jersey where munitions and military material and supplies were located, killing four in an act of sabotage. The explosion also weakened Lady Liberty’s arm and shattered the glass in her torch. The original torch is on display in the museum and the new torch she holds was fabricated and replaced the original.

Liberty’s original torch was damaged and repaired and is on view at the museum.

On our descent, we were able to take photos from the pedestal base and as David remarked ‘this view alone was worth the price of admission!’

View from Bottom of Pedestal looking up

We made our way to the museum which provided a detailed and extensive history of the statue’s design and fabrication in France and its trip to the USA. The pedestal was not completed when Liberty arrived in June 1885 and she waited in storage for her base on Liberty Island, formerly Bedloe’s Island and the location of Fort Wood, to be completed. She was finally reassembled and placed on her pedestal in April 1886 and dedicated on October 28, 1886. She’s been standing in New York Harbor ever since… 140 years this year… welcoming people to America.

Take a look at some of the displays in the museum.

Historian, author, and Boston College history professor, Heather Cox Richardson must have known we were visiting Lady Liberty. On New Year’s Day, her daily ‘Letters from an American’ post described the immigration process and history of the Ellis Island immigration facilities in detail Click here if you’re interested in reading it.

We caught the next to last ferry back to Liberty State Park. Before we returned to Blanche, we took a few minutes to see the park’s 9-11 Monument entitled ‘Empty Sky’. The monument ‘honors the memory of the 749 people that lived in or had ties to New Jersey that lost their lives at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. The names are placed randomly on the twin 30’ tall, brushed stainless steel walls.

Empty Sky, 9-11 monument

Names etched in the Liberty State Park 9-11 Monument

Without a doubt, this was one of the most thoughtful and wonderful Christmas gifts I’ve ever received. The entire experience was thrilling, patriotic and thought-provoking all at the same time. If you’ve never visited the Statue of Liberty, I urge you to go. It makes you proud to be an American.


Join us next time as we return to pick up the pieces of our US-6 Blue Highway adventure.