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Published: July 24th 2016
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Elegance
The statue standing tall and proud. Awe inspiring from the boat ride in. We started the morning with an early ferry ride over to the Statue of Liberty. Note to self, check the weekend times for commuter ferries. Turns out that the convenient $2 ferry across a small inlet by the marina doesn't start until 9 on Sundays, and we had to Uber over to Liberty State Park. The ferry from the Jersey side was much less crowded than the one coming from Battery Park. We made our way through the "airport style" security, both at the ferry dock and at the statue base, and headed up into the pedestal of the statue. They have the original torch there on display. The torch was modified many times over the years until it was replaced in 1986 and the original still has the final modifications. There is also an exhibit on the story of the Statue of Liberty, its origins, construction and history. There were 215 stairs to get to the top of the pedestal and another 162 to get to the crown viewing platform. The top of the pedestal has a great view of the surrounding bay and skylines. The crown platform was pretty small, able to fit only 4-5 people at a time.
Torch
The torch as it was, with all of it's original modifications, when it was replaced with the current one. (the structure was so modified, it was collapsing). It was also very warm as the air conditioning did not reach that far up. The stairs to reach the crown were a double spiral, one set was the up and the other was the down. You could also see where the access to the torch stairs was though they stopped allowing tours there in the early 1900s. One of the most fascinating parts was to see the shape of the statue from the inside. Each section of the statue was formed by hammering a sheet of copper against a mold. The features seen on the outside are just as visible on the inside but you are so much closer you can see the incredible detail. After the crown tour we had an early lunch and took the ferry to Battery Park. We walked to the 9/11 memorial to see the fountains. It's striking to see how small of a footprint those buildings had, but how large of a world impact they had when they fell. From there we headed up Manhattan to the Museum of Math near the Empire State building. Anne has been looking forward to this ever since she found out about it at a teaching conference
Lonely Room
Tours of the torch were discontinued more than 100 years ago, and this room sits, unused and lonely. last spring. It was a long hot walk and on the way and we were distracted by Beecher's Handmade Cheese Shop. They were making some cheese right there at the store and we ordered a sampler to eat while watching them make the cheese. The MOMath was lots of fun. All the exhibits were hands on and had several levels of explanation with them. It was like the Exploratorium but with just math. Anne had to hold herself back so the other kids could get turns too. After MoMath, we met up with Anne's Friend, Rachel, from Elementary and Middle school who took us to the world famous Macy's. It was a great place to use the bathroom and we saw the old wooden escalators they have there. It looks like they have replaced the wooden treads with metal but the rest of the escalators are still original. Michelle was very surprised to learn this was the Macy's from the Miracle on 34th street. From there we stopped to have a quick bite before heading over to Broadway to see the Lion King. We all enjoyed the production. Since it was too late for the ferry, we took the subway
STAIRS
... and yes... Anne was counting. back to the trailer and after a little bit of a detour due to construction, and a little bit of getting lost, we settled in for the night.
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