Firefly takes off to the Statue of Liberty

I always wanted to see the Statue of Liberty for a very long time - since I landed in this land of dreams - but couldn't do so. Anand told me that the statue was closed because of 9/11 and I, being a credulous wife, beleived him :-) But this canard of his did not last long. I found out from one of my friends, Radhika, that the statue was open to visitors and that we could go up to the top of the statue. All I had to do was to purchase the tickets online 4 days ahead of time. I got really excited and since my parents were here, I wanted to share my experience with them.

We started planning from the month of August since Varalakshmi pooja (this was when Radhika told me). With lots of hurdles in between, we finally planned to go on Saturday, Sept 24. I booked the tickets a week before for 8 of us(Mamayyagaru + Attayyagaru + Amma + Daddy + Anand + Myself + Praveen + Sirisha). Apparently there were two kinds of tours available - The Promenade Tour, and the Observatory Tour. The latter includes the Promenade tour, and a trip up to the pedestal of the statue. I found that, much to my dismay, that the highest point open to public since 9/11. But, I decided to go for the Observatory tour. Later Vasudha said her family would join us for the trip. I bought four more tickets for them (Giri + Vasudha + Varija Aunty + Sai). I couldn't wait for the trip, and felt that the week passed slowly.

The Day of Trip 9/24/05:

Finally! This was the day we were going to Statue of Liberty! But for all the earlier excitement, I felt too drowsy to wake up in the morning after having a late night the day before. We had a ladies day out (to be precise "Ladies Evening out") the evening before. The four of us ( My Mom, Attayyagaru, Sirisha and Myself) went for a movie - Salam Namaste. Somehow I dragged myself out of the bed and got ready. One by one everyone else got ready too. The younger lot decided that we would wear salwars. We had light breakfast and started our journey to see the lovely gift given by France to USA. Giri & Family arrived at 7.15am, and we all started off in three cars around 7:45am :).

The drive was very smooth, without any traffic. We took exit 14B and then went to Liberty State Park around 8.30am. As usual Anand followed Praveen. If Praveen drives, Anand blindly follows him as Praveen is very good with directions. We took the parking tickets and parked the cars near the entrance. Then, we walked towards the Ferry. It was cold and breezy, and I put on the spring jacket quickly :) I went to the Ticket counter and collected all the twelve tickets. The next Ferry was at 9.00am. So, we had to wait in a line for the Ferry. My mom, my mother-in-law and Varija Aunty sat down relaxing on a bench - we called them the Three Musketeers.



At 9am we went out of the ticket office and stood in another line for Security Check. The line moved slowly and after we finished the preliminary security check, we had to assemble in yet another waiting area. This one was a makeshift tarpalin tent with fans, and heaters. We thought that we had to stand in a line, but soon we had to gather in a huddle to accommodate more people. We met a mother and child from Ohio. The mother seemed as happy and excited to visit the statue of liberty as I was! After waiting for what seemed like hours, we boarded the ferry around 9:45am.


Ferry to Liberty Island via Ellis Island

All of us sat on the top-tier of the Ferry. I enjoyed the views - the Manhattan skyline was awesome; the statue was visible in the distance, and I felt as though it was staring at me; and the waters were serene and filled with a number of sailboats and barges. We actually saw a barge which carried some plants and tree on it, and looked like an island on the move.

Ellis Island

The ferry stopped at the Ellis Island for about 15-20min. We didn't get down at this place but stayed on board moved on to the Liberty Island. The sight of the statue from the Ferry was awesome. I felt very happy that I could finally see the statue of liberty up close. As I said earlier, we bought passes for the Observatory Tour which consisted of viewing the statue from the highest point open for public - the top of the pedestal.




Liberty Island

As soon as we got off at the Liberty Island, we looked for a ranger who could explain us about the statue. Anand found at the information centre that we had to go the entrance at the base of the statue. There we had go in for yet another round of security check. Here we were not even allowed to take water with us! We somehow managed to take two bottles of water with us into the tent. But in the tent (where we had to stand in a line for our turn for the security check), an officer told us we could keep those bottles in a locker. Anand went with the bottles to put them in a locker and we went in for the security check. The officer was good enough to let Anand join us immediately without having to stand in the line once again.

Here we had a thorough security check. We were asked to stand at a metal detector gate and compressed air was pumped at us from many directions. This was to increase the chance of detecting any explosive material that one could be carrying. We had to wait for green signal to go forward. Later we collected our belongings and stood outside the security check area. One by one everyone joined us.

The Museum

The statue is placed on a concrete pedestal (which used to be a fort at one time) which is about 100ft high and we were supposed to go to the top of it. After everyone assembled, the guide led us through the door of the fort. Once inside, we saw the original Liberty Torch preserved it in that museum. A ranger with a thick Eastern European accent started telling us a brief history of the torch. We left while he was still going through his tired speech to the museum where the artifacts of the statue were kept. There was a mould of statue's face, foot, and the ear. The museum has a section that showed how the statue was created using pictures, moulds, and textual descriptions. The museum also showed how the image of the statue of liberty was used for commercial and myriad other purposes since its inception. This includes different post cards, posters, miniature replicas, advertisements, etc.

We then had to take the elevator up to the 5th floor, from where we had to climb 24 steps in order to go to the obeservatory. We took the lift and went to the 5th floor, from where we could see the interior structure around which the copper surface of the statue is wrapped. I found the architecture quite amazing. Then slowly all the 12 of us took the stairs up to the observatory.

The Observatory - and the views from there

This is the place where the statue actully starts. The height from ground to the tip of the torch is 305 feet. This includes the foundation and the pedestal. The height of the statue itself, from the top of the base to the torch, is 151 feet. I was thrilled at its sight. There was a narrow passage round the pedastal. The view of the New York skyline from here was amazing and as expected all of took pictures.

The Promenade

I am really tired of typing this article now, so I will try to cut it short :)

We decended down the 24 steps + 5 floors (we decided not to take the elevator down, as the rangers there seem to discourage it since it would take us (them?) a lot of time) and went to the Promenade. This is the view from the base of the statue. I felt that the place resembled Birla Mandir. It looked the same for me, the way you decend the stairs, then you go sit in the sitting area. The feel was the same, but the place was not the same. We all sat there for sometime enjoying the beauty of the statue, and taking quite a few snaps :)

Later around 12.30pm we all started our way back to the Ferry. On our way back, we went, as most tourits do, to the sovenier shop and bought few things and then went to take the ferry back to NJ. Over the years, I made a habit of collecting pennies imprinted with the visiting place's populars images from those hand-operated minting machines. Here, I had to spend two dollars to get a dollar-coin sized trinket which is of the same thickness as the Statue of Liberty's copper plate with the statue's image on it.


The ferry to New Jersey was just about to leave as we approached it, and we made in quick time to the shore. We ended our journey at the particular lot with an appetizing note by eating the yummy vegetable pakoras and bajjis made by Attayyagaru, mummy, and Sirisha the evening before!