Why can't you visit the Statue of Liberty's Torch? - IT'S HISTORY

since arriving in new york back in 1885  lady liberty has stood tall against the   rapidly changing skyline of new york for  136 years greeting countless immigrants   some of whom were our ancestors taking their first  steps in becoming american and although we cherish   the notion of this image not many people  realize just what an effort it was for this   statue to come into existence what occurred  on liberty island prior to her existence or   that there was a time when one could stand out  on the small balconies surrounding the torch   assumingly an admiration of a breathtaking  view over new york this is the story of   the statue of liberty i'm your host ryan  socash and you're watching it's history the statue has served as a beacon of america  for over a century and although many people   adore it i think it's important to dissect the  artistic motifs and what they represent to better   comprehend our impressions first off the work  was modeled after the roman goddess of freedom   yielding a torch to symbolize enlightenment  the seven spikes on her crown representing the   universal nature of the concept of liberty  across the seven seas and seven continents   with the broken shackle and chains beneath her  right foot representing the forward march of   america away from oppression and slavery this  statue so perfectly represents many of america's   core values and yet surprisingly its very presence  is also a testament to a long-lasting friendship   formed between france and the united states  during the american revolution bringing us   to a tablet inscribed with emma lazarus's  famous sonnet the new colossus an appropriate   greeting that was presented to the thousands  of immigrants who passed through ellis island   during its 60 years of service in order to seek  a new life and opportunities 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 toast to  me i lift my lamp beside the golden door   these patriotic messages as conveyed by art still  stir emotion and attract a staggering 3.5 million   visitors from far and wide to its pedestal every  year it is a much beloved and well-known part   of american culture but did you ever wonder  what was on this island before lady liberty   stay tuned because you will not believe  the answer you also would not believe how   much trouble it was to find that information  in preparing this video we had to dig deep   accessing thousands of websites some of which  came off as a bit sketchy but i just discovered   a tool which helps me to stay protected so  i wanted to share it with you guys atlas vpn   right now atlas vpn is running a huge discount  meaning you can get a three-year subscription   for just a dollar and 39 cents a month with  a 30-day money-back guarantee but time is   running out so get your deal by clicking on the  link in the video description below and let me   tell you this service was a total game changer  for me as an american expat living in europe   i enjoy the services blazing speeds and ability  to access streaming services around the world   as a video producer my team downloads endless  amounts of media from all corners of the internet   which would normally come with some malware risks  however thanks to the fact that atlas vpn stops   ads and malware on unlimited devices we have a  total peace of mind i should also note that mrs   socash saves cash while shopping online by getting  the best deals regardless of her actual location   so protect yourself by signing up for this  amazing offer before it expires once more   right now atlas vpn is running a huge discount  meaning you can get a three-year subscription for   just a dollar and 39 cents a month with a 30-day  money-back guarantee time is running out so get   your deal by clicking on the link in the video  description below and now back to our lady liberty   liberty island has had many different names and  inhabitants in its time according to the national   park service its history goes back as far as 994  a.d when the island was occupied by members of   the algonquin tribe who used the island as a food  source apparently liberty island was incredibly   rich with oyster beds which native americans used  as an important food source eating the meat and   discarding the shells we also know that they ate  smaller shellfish fin fish as indicated by the   shells and bones found during the 1985 restoration  works on the island archaeologists found pottery   shards and arrowhead fragments with the bones of  animals ranging from duck to deer which gives us   a glimpse into their daily life and patterns  that suggest an effective use of the seasons   fishing in the spring harvesting oysters crabs  and clams in the summer and hunting year round   in order to sustain a steady food source this  cycle was eventually disrupted by europe's 16th   century's search for a passage to india as henry  hudson founded a dutch colony along the modern day   hudson river after unsuccessfully attempting to  find a passage to india through northeast america   initially the native americans and europeans  formed a mutually beneficial trade relationship   established in 1614 this exclusive trade agreement  allowed the dutch three years worth of rights to   collect furs and pelts in return for various  iron products such as pots axes and hoes this   relationship however ended up turning for the  worse as the local new york tribes were pushed   out of the area by a mixture of disease war and  occupation as the island was further colonized   it was also around this time that the dutch  began referring to the island as oyster island   disconnecting it from association with native  americans by 1667 a dutch colonist by the name of   isaac bedlow obtained a colonial land grant  for oyster island though his ownership was only   approved by the sitting colonial governor francis  lovelace in 1669 on the condition that he renamed   it love island as opposed to bedlo's island as  he originally planned to do even despite the   fact that bedload died four years later in 1673  love island was still renamed bedos island after   governor lovelace was overthrown by the dutch navy  that same year the island was taken over by the   english a year later and passed hands several more  times until it was established as a quarantine   station by the city of new york ships that passed  through would be held and inspected for disease   and contamination before being allowed to move on  in 1746 archibald kennedy purchased the island to   establish a summer residence on it though it  would only be re-established as a quarantine   station due to the ongoing outbreak of smallpox  from 1755 to 1757 and was ultimately reclaimed by   new york city a year later in 1758 then during the  american revolution benlow's island was an asylum   for the american colonist with loyalty to great  britain until returning to a quarantine station   once again in 1784 in 1807 the u.s army declared  bedlow's island as an official military post and   construction began on fort wood completed in 1811.  while fort woods garrison was later disbanded the   united states army remained active on the island  until 1937. there was also a conflict about which   state this island belonged to only coming  to terms in 1837 with a decree that the land   itself belonged to new york and the submerged land  surrounding the island belonged to new jersey and   yet despite all this back and forth 40 years later  bedlow's island was chosen by frederick augusti   bartholdi as the official home for the statue of  liberty bringing us to the beginning of the island   as the world would come to know it bartholdi  was born in kalmar france in 1834 he completed   his first commissioned work by the age of 20  a large statue of napoleonic general jean rapp   then he traveled with a group of french cultural  ambassadors to photograph antiquities in egypt the   desert landscapes inspired bartholdi greatly  enough to write the following statement these   granite beings in their imperturbable majesty seem  to be still listening to the most remote antiquity   their kind and impassable glance seems to  ignore the present and to be fixed upon the   unlimited future while bartholdi's most well-known  project is by far the statue of liberty there are   many other examples of his work such as the  bartholdi fountain in washington dc and even   more surprisingly the statue of liberty wasn't  always intended to be given to america in fact   it was originally intended to be given to egypt to  be placed at the suez canal as bartholdi drew much   of his creative inspiration from the architecture  there from structures such as the pyramids and   the sphinx hence bartholdi's model for the statue  is not certain theories vary from lady liberty's   iconic face being based on an arab woman when  the statue was meant to be given to egypt to   more popular theories that the statue was based  on bartholdi's mother or perhaps even his wife   as bartholdi began work on the statue back in  france he was kept thoroughly busy with the task   of building the pedestal for the statue itself you  see the pedestal alone took five years to finance   and build from 1881 to 1886 longer than the statue  itself however the construction of lady liberty   was also no easy task it required a massive amount  of funding from both france and the united states   it was agreed upon that france would be in charge  of creating and assembling the statue while the   united states would be responsible for funding and  building the pedestal both countries took a varied   approach to financing this incredible project  france called on its people with a mixture of   public fees entertainment and lottery while  the united states financed the pedestal with   art exhibitions theatrical events auctions and  prize fights in fact it was one of these art and   literary auctions that the famous sonnet of the  new colossus was written by emma lazarus in 1883.   funding was still incredibly slow however due to  the cost there was also a fair bit of opposition   to the statue from new york residents an issue  that was resolved on the pr level and in a rather   amusing way rumors were spread through new york  that the statue would go to boston or philadelphia   two of new york's biggest rivals and this lit  the fire under the feet of hesitant new yorkers   whom whether they were in favor of the statue  or against it refused to allow this extravagant   gift to go to either of those two cities it  was thanks to this competitiveness and joseph   pulitzer's advertisement of the cause in new  york world newspapers seen by thousands in 1885   that the financial movement truly gained traction  their donations weren't thankless in the slightest   true to his word pulitzer printed every donor's  name in the newspaper causing a massive spike in   donors and by the time that the pedestal was fully  funded 120 000 people had made donations totaling   upwards of a hundred thousand dollars back in  france alexander gustav eiffel not long before   creating the world famous eiffel tower was brought  onto the project as an engineer to address certain   structural issues identified by bart holde due  to the sheer size of the statue alone originally   bart holdey had envisioned the torch's flame  to be a solid mass of copper wrapped in a thin   cover of gold leaf it was to be lit by a series  of floodlights from the balcony but this request   was later overruled as it would run a severe risk  of blinding passing by pilots bartholdi rectified   this by cutting several portholes into the body  of the torch's flame into which light bulbs were   placed anyhow the statue was finished in 1884  though france's job was far from over next came   the incredible task of transporting such a massive  statue across the atlantic ocean to its permanent   home on bedlaws island the fully completed statue  of liberty measured 151 feet and one inch in total   weighed in at 225 tons and cost 400 000 it was  incredibly large so much so that it needed to be   disassembled into 350 pieces and packed into  214 separate crates aboard french freighters   the cargo was so heavy that a ship nearly capsized  during its transatlantic journey all the same the   statue arrived in the united states on june the  17th 1885 but wasn't assembled until the pedestal   was completed just under a year later in april of  1886. surprisingly however this wasn't the first   time that the torch had been in the united  states in fact in 1876 about a decade prior   the torch was exhibited in philadelphia and later  in new york's madison square park in order to   raise funds to pay for the statue's pedestal but  on this trip it was time for the torch to rise   on october the 28th 1886 president cleveland  officially dedicated the statue of liberty   in front of a massive crowd the masterpiece  was strategically placed to face the south east   serving as a welcoming symbol and a beacon for  the incoming ships entering new york harbor from   the beginning the statue was a tourist magnet but  back then it was possible to go beyond the crown   and into the torch although the public has been  permanently denied entrance to the torch's balcony   for over a century it wasn't always this way  in fact visitors were allowed to climb up the   entirety of the statue including the torch until  1916 yet due to the narrowness of the statue's arm   only 12 people were able to make the climb up  the torch at once this area was so small that   there was only room for a single ladder and no  stairs the visitor would exit onto a balcony   through a small door underneath the flame which  would offer a breathtaking view of the new york   skyline from an incredible 300 feet above ground  level there are conflicting opinions on who could   actually visit the torch some claim that it was  available for all others hailed it as a popular   spot for the adventure tourist and the new york  times reported that not just anyone was allowed   up to the torch even in the early days but  that this was a privilege reserved only for   incredibly special vip guests given the infamy  of the statue of liberty some degree of urban   legend is probably to be expected we do know for  certain however the definitive moment when the   torch of the statue of liberty closed to visitors  forever when world war one was raging on in europe   the united states had remained neutral until 1917  when the nearby black tom island which was housing   munitions in masses was sabotaged the hostility  came from germany a country that saw the dealing   of munitions to europe as a threat and took  actions against the united states on july the 30th   1916 at approximately 208 a.m a massive explosion  at a munitions depot on the pier connecting black   tom island to new jersey shook the harbor  killing four people and wounding hundreds   according to jersey city university ellis island  had to be evacuated and the explosion reached   so far out from the harbor that windows in  times square were also blown out by the blast   nbc reports that the island's isolated location as  well as the decreased number of immigrants coming   to ellis island after their home countries began  countermeasures to stop citizens from leaving to   escape the draft were both responsible for  the lower number of casualties anyhow the   attack was later confirmed to be carried out  by a group of german agents and the explosion   also damaged the statue of liberty's torch and  arm with flying shrapnel and from there on out   the torch was closed to the public it should also  be noted here that the right arms structure had   also suffered wear and tear from years of people  climbing up and down having not been designed to   support so much weight some guests even report to  have felt it shaking from within which must have   been a terrifying sensation when 300 feet above  ground level in some ways the torch is the most   vulnerable part of the grand structure requiring  ongoing maintenance and ultimately a replacement   but that's not the statue's only weak point  in fact maintenance over the years has been   outrageous according to statueofliberty.org a  mere six years after its dedication the upper   row of portals were replaced with an 18-inch  belt of glass an octagonal pyramid skylight with   red white and yellow glasses were installed  on the very top of the flame for lighting   this design remained until 1916 when it was  changed once again this time by the sculptor   guston borglum famous for his creation of  mount rushmore borglum removed the copper in   roughly 250 places on the crown replicating  it with an ambered colored cathedral glass   however this turned out to be a fatal mistake as  it left much of the torch exposed to the elements   over time rain and snow corroded the torch's vital  framework and in 1931 an entirely new lighting   system would need to be installed these large  deviations from the original design of the torch   left the original vision all but unrecognizable  lost in a myriad of modifications that had been   made over the better part of a century another  large change that lady liberty underwent was a   drastic change in color when she first reached new  york's shores rather than the light shade of green   you will most likely recognize today she was a  beautiful rich red copper it wasn't until 30 years   later that the statue of liberty became a bluish  green color that most people associate her with   this came about as the result of several different  chemical reactions involving copper sulfur and   oxygen along with the varied pollution of man-made  emissions that came from the city air this natural   oxidation then caused the statue to change  from a shiny copper color to a deep dull brown   and then finally a bluish green other far less  desirable chemical changes have also taken place   over the years by 1980 corrosion and leaks  from rain along with damage from the bombing   had rendered the original torch damaged well  beyond repair it was removed from the statue on   july the 4th 1984 and replaced with a gold-plated  replica that remained much more faithful to the   original version and design by the end of 1984  the old torch was finally moved to a small limited   capacity museum located in the pedestal of the  statue which workers had to dig a trench into   in order to transport the massive torch inside  this museum was largely passed over by visitors   to the statue of liberty business insider reports  that a mere 20 percent of all visitors who toured   the statue made a visit to that museum to see the  original flame bedlose island didn't become known   as liberty island until 1956 when it was finally  renamed around 10 years later ellis island which   had since been closed as a federal immigration  station for over a decade was declared part of   the statue of liberty national monument these  monuments mostly remained open but with a few   exceptions such as the terrorist attacks of  september 11th 2001. liberty island was closed   down for 100 days after the attack with the  statue of liberty remaining closed for several   years due to ongoing safety and security concerns  following what is widely considered both one of   america's largest tragedies and deadliest  terrorist attacks the statue of liberty did   not reopen to the public until august 2004 though  the crown would not reopen for another five years   in november of 2018 the original torch was removed  from the base of the statue for the first time   since being replaced by its replica in order to be  moved across liberty island to its new permanent   home in the new statue of liberty museum the  museum site was located about 100 yards from the   statue and bloomberg reports in an interview with  the president and ceo of the statue of liberty   ellis island foundation that taking down the 3 600  pound base and flame from the pedestal was quote   very frightening as they had to use large  freestanding scaffolding unlike when it was   first placed inside the pedestal museum the  torch had to be taken apart in two pieces   just to get it out of the building so i bet you're  wondering if you can visit the torch in modern day   the answer is a very definitive no the only people  who are allowed to access the 40-foot ladder   up to the torch are the national park service  staff members who routinely go up to maintain   the balcony's floodlights and are affectionately  referred to by some as the keepers of the flame   all the same visiting the crown also offers a zest  of adventure if you can bear the long lines and if   you choose to visit be wary of storms as it is  reported that the statue of liberty is struck by   lightning around 600 times a year thanks to her  towering height and highly conductive material   at its core the story of the statue of liberty  from past to present is one of unity considering   what an unusual gesture it is for one country to  create what might as well be another country's   most iconic piece of patriotic symbolism i'd  suggest that this is a true example of meaningful   artistry so keep the story alive by subscribing to  its history sharing this video and don't forget to   check out our episode about new york's secret  substations this is ryan socash signing off

Channel: IT'S HISTORY

Views: 893,751

Keywords: tales of urban decay, urban history, American history, urban exploring, Ryan Socash, bright sun films, abandoned series, torch visit, statue of liberty torch, history of the statue of liberty, statue of liberty inside, statue of liberty minecraft, statue of liberty facts, Statue of liberty david copperfield, the full history of the statue of liberty, who built the statue of liberty?, Why is the statue of liberty a woman?, what is the chain on the statue of liberty?

Id: -ybKILVz2Xc

Length: 23min 18sec (1398 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 14 2021