Climbing Down From the Crown

A family slowly descends the narrow, twisting 146 stairs leading from the Statue of Liberty’s crown to its pedestal. About 4.4 million people visit the landmark annually on Liberty Island.

The Statue of Liberty has stood in New York Harbor since 1886, and The Times was there the day it was unveiled. “France’s Gift Accepted; Liberty’s Statue Unveiled on Bedlow’s Island; A Great Holiday to be Remembered in This City,” declared The Times Oct. 29, 1886.

The Times has gone back to Lady Liberty many times, including in 1962, when this photo was taken. “The rewards at the summit are small and fleeting,” wrote reporter McCandlish Phillips in the article, “Ascent to Liberty’s Crown: Many Try, Some Succeed.” “There isn’t much room, the view through small windows isn’t very good, and ninety seconds is about as long as one can pause. The pressure of those coming up requires an equivalent movement downward.

“‘All that for this?’ a man asked, taking a quick peep through one of the twenty-four slat windows. ‘They ought to wash the windows up here.'”

The crown was closed for eight years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks; it reopened on July 4, 2009. The torch has been off limits since the “Black Tom” explosion of July 30, 1916, one of the largest acts of sabotage to America before Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. People claiming to have been in the torch confuse it with climbing the spiral staircase to the crown. The National Park Service staff does go up to the torch, climbing a narrow 40-foot ladder in order to maintain the floodlights that light the torch.