New York adventures, part 3: AKA Lady Liberty's guts

This was a great day. A very cold, very windy great day. I have not been so cold in a long time, but it was definitely worth the cold temperatures and wind to get to climb all 352 steps to the top of the State of Liberty.

Our tickets to Lady Liberty were for 2:00pm, so we decided to spend the morning at the Met again. We hadn't even seen the Ancient Egypt exhibit the day before, and we knew we had to get back to see at least that. We ended up spending another 3 hours at the museum, and then busting our butts to get all the way down Manhattan to catch the ferry to Liberty Island at 2:00.

We loved this giant sarcophagus of some guy (can't remember his name) who really thought he was important. He had the slaves build him a 50'x50'x50' limestone chamber, which was entirely then filled with sand, and his sarcophagus was placed exactly in the center of this sand. No wonder he was so well preserved and protected from the elements.

We loved seeing real-live canopic jars. We also got our favorite joke of the trip from this museum visit, "What's wrong with you? Did you leave your brain in a canopic jar?"

Did you know that the Book of the Dead is actually---a book? A real thing? The full thing is on display at the Met. It was interesting to read (no, I can't read ancient Egyptian--just trusting the translation) about the customs and religious rites of the Egyptians straight out of their book.

We ran out of the museum at 1:00pm knowing that we would be pushing it to get to South Ferry in time for our tickets. It's quite a brisk walk to get to the subway from the Met, and then a loooooong ride down to the tip of Manhattan.

If you ever want to go to Liberty's crown, you must get tickets months in advance. Months and months in advance. I bought ours last November as soon as I knew we were going to be in New York. The crown tickets are gone through the rest of the summer from what I hear. A big plus of Crown tickets is that when you get to the super long line to go through security and get onto the ferry boat, they totally let you cut in at the front of the line. Just like a movie star.

You see in this picture that Lady Liberty is off to the right in the background. Why wasn't I looking at her? Well, it's because there's a pretty dang good view of Manhattan from the boat. Every seat and standing place was taken on the lower decks of the boat, and it was freezing on the top. But we had the best view, even though we were frozen.Some people had trouble finding their land legs again.

I love the view of the statue and Manhattan in the background.

And now for an anatomy lesson. The statue itself is only about 3/8" thick. Made in the repussee technique from hammered copper sheets riveted together. This thin shell of copper has turned green on the outside, but the inside is still a beautiful golden/copper/brown color. The inside of the statue is supported by an Eiffel Tower-like structure (designed by none other than Monsieur Gustav Eiffel) along with hundreds and hundreds of stainless steel ribs that are riveted to the staute.

The original spiral staircase to the crown had been replaced by a new tiny spiral staircase, a double helix with separate up and down stairs twisting perfectly around each other. It was a long climb, and a miracle that Mark was able to climb stairs by this day, only 4 days after the marathon. He ended up coming down backward to save his quads, but he did it!

This is the back of her head, from the inside. Lots of cameras everywhere.I was so happy to be in the crown room, I couldn't stop smiling. The two park rangers up there that day were not so happy that we were happy to be there. We were the last ones up that day, and they wanted to go home. Boo on them. We had climbed 352 steps and we were going to relish the experience of being on top of the world.

Jacob in the crown.Looking out at NY Harbor.Abram the happy boy loved being in the crown.Just enough room for four of us up there.The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World. That's the official title of the statue. Lady Liberty, The Copper Lady, the New Colossus, whatever you call her, she is magnificent. And yes, Nancy, I found the plaque this time--right at the end of the museum exhibit.

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Emma Lazarus, "The New Colossus"