Lady Liberty is one of the most famous attractions in New York City.
But there's a lot more to this landmark than you might think.
News, senior reporter Michelle Castillo
is on the scene. Good morning, Michelle,
good morning. We're here on Liberty Island. I'm joined by a rare,
he's the VP of sales and marketing for Statue City cruises. So thank you so much.
We're actually here in front of the Statue of Liberty
right before it opens for the only one here.
So chat
about what's going to happen soon.
So tell us more about Liberty Island.
Sure,
I'm with Statue City cruises,
the authorized ferry operator to the Statue of Liberty in Island.
We have fry, visitors from Battery Park in Lower Manhattan
and also from Liberty State Park, New Jersey City, New Jersey.
We operate daily service
to the Statue of Liberty and to Ellis Island
and we're just proud partners of the National Park Service.
So
quick question for you.
A lot of people think that the statue on Ellis Island, how are the two different
two
totally distinct separate islands
from Battery Park?
The first stop would be Liberty Island, which is where the Statue of Liberty is
after a visit to the Statue of Liberty Grounds only or interior.
The next stop would be Ellis Island,
which is where our National Museum of Immigration is.
So, yeah, that's just right over there. So it's just like a
half
away. But you can get the same if you take the ferry right with the
city cruises round trip,
ferry service for both islands included within one price point.
So it's 24 50 for adults.
Now, do you have any tips?
Because, you know, we just saw one of the first ferries pass us.
I think they're going to go to Ellis Island first.
It seemed crowded.
What's the tips you have if you want to visit the Statue of Liberty,
start early, book your tickets in advance.
The New Jersey departure point is typically a slower location for us.
Normally,
about 80% of our visitors arrive in New York City and about 20% out of New Jersey.
But the key to the entire process is booking early and showing up in advance.
Now, everyone knows about the Statue of Liberty, climbing to the top
and
taking in the views. But there's other things to do here on Liberty Island.
Can you tell us a little bit more about the activities?
Absolutely.
So there's the pedestal aspect of the Statue of Liberty,
which is the base of the statue.
You're about halfway up about six stories up at that point.
There's also the Liberty Museum, which is many of the artifacts that
kind of give you the story of how the Statue of Liberty was built
within the museum that's available to every guest.
You don't have to pre set that up in advance
to show up and basically walk into the museum.
And then from this location, you ferry over to
Ellis Island for a full visit there.
Three floor museum
basically telling the immigrant story,
how many of our immigrants came into the States and
made their way in from various points throughout the world.
Now,
who is it typically out of towners who visit these
islands or do you get a lot of locals?
Many locals? I mean, you'd be surprised.
We do see heavy, consistent for New York, New Jersey.
Domestically, we're probably at about 75% domestic, 25% international
international visitors
from
UK, French,
Italy, Germany.
You
know, a swath of many visitors
throughout the world.
Now this weekend actually marks the 137th anniversary of
people being able to visit the Statue of Liberty.
What makes it such an iconic American landmark?
Well, I mean, for many, it's a pilgrimage.
I mean, my my favorite vantage point is aboard that vessel,
watching the visitors make their way over to see the Statue of Liberty.
The first approach as we're approaching the island.
And it's uh it's typically a pretty exciting thing to watch kids old.
I mean, everyone gets very excited to see the Statue of Liberty.
I mean, if you look around as you can see,
you have a great vantage point of the city from here.
Do you have any other tips for anyone attempting to
climb the or go to the Statue of Liberty?
Besides booking early book? Well, in advance tickets are available six months out.
The only way to actually book this ticket is through
our website at the Statue city cruises dot com.
Um And again, just book it out as far as possible.
Um Especially if you're you're visiting during any sort of holiday.
And what other tours can you do with Statue City cruises?
Uh We actually operate the service to Alcatraz,
uh Niagara as well from the Canadian side
uh dinner cruises throughout New York City.
Um quite a bit. I mean, it's pretty extensive, the services that we have.
We operate the NYC ferry service throughout
New York City throughout the five boroughs.
So we're very excited to be fabric in New York City.
Well, thanks for joining us today. Thanks for having me.
Now, coming up,
we're gonna take you inside the Statue of Liberty right up to the
top of the crown where we're gonna learn more about Lady Liberty herself.
Back to you guys in the studio. Oh, amazing assignment.
Great day to be at Lady Liberty and leave it
to our Michelle Castillo to really sell that heah.
Right. I can't wait,
get that inside to
I mean, both of us have lived here for years were locals, but
I don't make it to the statue of Liberty. Do you? Me neither.
And so this is a good, a good weekend trip. But we got
early.
Yes, out,
six months in advance over 4 million people make the
trip to Liberty Island to visit the Statue of Liberty.
And on the eve of the 137th anniversary since it opened to the public.
Senior reporter Michelle still is getting a look inside the statue. How's it going?
We're in the crown of a Lady Liberty herself.
Yes, we're inside the Statue of Liberty. I'm here with Laurel Brierley.
She's a park ranger with the National Park Service.
So tell us more about the Statue of Liberty.
She's about to celebrate her 137th anniversary of letting visitors in.
She is so, yeah, like you said, we're up here in the crown.
The crown has been a place that visitors have been coming to since she was here.
So 100 and 37 years.
So every visitor who comes here gets to
participate in that tradition of visiting her.
Now, if you want to climb the stairs, how many stairs are there to the top of the crowd?
So from the ground to the crown, it is 377 stairs,
we do have an elevator that can take you most of the way through the
pedestal and then when you're in the crown herself or in the statue herself,
you're climbing just those stairs up here.
And we did the authentic experience today. We climb from the ground up.
So any tips for anyone trying to do this, take your time, lots of breaks.
Nobody needs to race up to the top. Just, yeah, take your time and
enjoy that climb and look around while you're doing it.
Now, there's been some people who say they've gone up to the torch.
What's the truth behind that?
Well,
visitors probably did make their way up there from time
to time long before the National Park Service was here.
When we want visitors to go somewhere. We want it to be a safe experience.
We want it to be well lit. We want to be lots of room for them to enjoy that
and heading up her tiny little arm is definitely not that experience.
We have stairs that come all the way up here to the crown, but going up the arm,
it's just a tiny little
and she sways with the wind and she sways when you walk.
So that whole way up, you're swaying back and forth
and it's pretty dark in there too. So not the safest place to be sending visitors.
Yeah, just to the ground these days.
Now, the Statue of Liberty has such a unique color.
Um, what is it? What's that color? Exactly. Yeah.
So lots of people know her as green um, in French, the term is Verde
green, which is a very fancy French term for a French color.
Um, but some people think she looks a little teal green is usually what we go with.
Now, as I understand the torch isn't the original torch.
So can you tell us about why it was replaced and where you can go see the original one?
Yeah.
So in the 19 eighties, there was a major rehabilitation done to the whole statue.
Um At that point, they realized that the torch,
it couldn't really be rehabilitated, it had to be replaced.
So the original was taken down.
It stood in the pedestal for a while and is now
in the statue of Liberty Museum here on Liberty Island.
And the one we have up there is uh exact
size
replica
that has gold leaf coating instead of the windows that the original went.
And what is the Statue of Liberty made out of? She is copper just like a penny. Yeah.
So when she was first here, she would have had that beautiful shiny brown color
and the patina developed over that over time.
It actually protects the copper underneath that
very interesting.
Now, this crowd, you can see views of the city all around us. I was it,
I understand it was close for a little bit. When did it reopen to the public?
We reopened about a year ago, almost exactly a year ago.
Yeah, we were closed for COVID for a couple of years.
Um But yeah, as soon as it was safe to have folks up here,
we reopened and had folks up here.
What's your biggest tip if you're going to visit the Statue of Liberty? Oh, my gosh.
Just plan ahead for sure. Getting these crown tickets is a little hard.
So the earlier you can plan the better and again,
just take your time and enjoy the time while you're here.
Well, I'm gonna take the view up here, but back to you guys in studio.
Thank you so much, Chris and I was born and raised in the city.
I can honestly say, I don't think I've ever been to the Crown. What about you?
I've never been either. Maybe we should do a trip
because the lower Manhattan, it's not too far from us.
I mean, we can see the Statue of Liberty from our office.
It's literally like in our backyard.
So I think we need to take advantage of what millions
of tourists from around the world come every year to see.
Absolutely.