Statue of Liberty Tickets and Tours in New York

Most people know that Lady Liberty was a gift to America from the French people, delivered in 300 copper pieces and assembled on an iron structure designed by Gustave Eiffel (the tower man). Between 1984 and 1986, the statue was heavily renovated, her iron infrastructure being replaced with stainless steel and a new flame coated in 24-carat gold.

It’s not easy holding the torch in all weathers. Lightning strikes her about 600 times each year. Her raised arm can move five inches (12cm) in strong winds, and she was closed in 2012 after Hurricane Sandy. People are another danger. In 1916, during WW I, some Germans exploded a bomb inside her, causing $100,000 of damage.

Today, the Statue of Liberty is a UNESCO World Heritage site and is visited by around four million people each year. She is one of the most powerful symbols of America – the first sight of many new immigrants to the country in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and a feature of the $10 bill. In New York, you’ll find hundreds of Liberty souvenirs, most of them wonderfully horrible.