00:01- [Narrator] In this video,
let's take a close look
00:03at the inside of the Statue of Liberty.
00:05We'll take a quick look at the history,
00:08how the statue was built and
where you can go on the inside.
00:13(electronics buzzing)
00:19This video was made possible by NordVPN.
00:31The statue's official name
00:33is Liberty Enlightening the World,
00:35but today it's known as
the Statue of Liberty.
00:38It was a gift to the United States
00:40from the people of
France in the year 1886.
00:44If we zoom in on Europe,
right here is France,
00:48and across the ocean over
here is the United States.
00:53The Statue of Liberty is
right here on the East Coast.
00:57If we zoom in here, you can
see the state of New York
01:00and the state of New Jersey.
01:03Right in between the two
states is the Upper Bay,
01:06often called the New York Harbor.
01:09The Statue of Liberty is
here on Liberty Island.
01:14And if we zoom out again,
you can see Manhattan
01:16with all of its famous New York buildings.
01:19Here's Governor's Island,
01:20another popular tourist destination,
01:22and right here is Ellis
Island, where many immigrants
01:25entered the United
States from 1892 to 1954.
01:30As boats sailed into the harbor,
01:31the Statue of Liberty would
be one of the first views
01:34that immigrants would see
coming to the United States.
01:37The Statue of Liberty has come to be known
01:39as a symbol of freedom.
01:40In her right hand, she holds a torch,
01:43and in her left hand, she holds
a tablet that has the date
01:46of the Declaration of
Independence in Roman numerals.
01:51One thing you can't see from the ground
01:53is a broken shackle and chain.
01:55This is meant to symbolize
the end of slavery.
01:58The statue is 46 meters tall.
02:01If you count from the ground
up, it's 93 meters tall.
02:04That's about as tall
as a 20-story building.
02:07Here's the size of a person
02:09in comparison to the statue's big toe.
02:12When it was complete in 1886,
02:14it was the tallest statue in the world,
02:17but that title is now held by
the Statue of Unity in India.
02:23The Statue of Liberty
is made up of copper.
02:25That's right, it was originally
the color of a penny.
02:28It only took about 20
years for the air and rain
02:30to slowly oxidize the metal
and turn it the color green.
02:34The copper metal has a thickness
of only 2.4 millimeters.
02:38That's less than the thickness
of two American pennies.
02:43The statue was built in pieces,
02:45and a statue this big
takes a lot of planning.
02:47The statue was designed
by the French sculptor,
02:49Frederic August Bartholdi.
02:52First, he made the initial
sculpture out of clay.
02:55This was only 1.2 meters high.
02:57The average adult is a
little taller than this.
03:00Next, a larger version
would be twice the size
03:02and would be made out of plaster.
03:05The next version would be much bigger.
03:06This is 1/4 the size of the full statue.
03:09At each stage of enlargement,
Bartholdi would be able
03:12to further perfect the
details of the statue.
03:15For the full-size version,
it had to be built in pieces
03:17so it would fit inside the workshop.
03:21At one point, to raise
money, the finished version
03:23of the statue's head
was displayed in France,
03:26and the right arm and torch
03:28was displayed in the United States.
03:30Visitors could pay money to climb
03:31to the top of each of these.
03:37So how do we get from the
plaster model of the statue
03:40to the finished copper version?
03:43Well, the final version was
made out of sheets of copper.
03:46They used a method called
repousse. Here's how this works.
03:50They would take pieces of
the full-size plaster model
03:52of the statue and build a
wooden mold right up next to it.
03:56This would then be used to
shape the pieces of copper.
03:58They would hammer them in place
04:00until they would fit the
shape of the wooden mold.
04:03After that, the copper was supported
04:05on the inside with iron straps.
04:07Now we have a completed piece
of the Statue of Liberty.
04:10By themselves, these
pieces would never be able
04:12to hold their own weight.
04:13It needs a supporting structure,
04:15and this was designed by Gustave Eiffel.
04:18His name might sound familiar to you.
04:21Just a few years later, he would go on
04:23to help build the Eiffel
Tower in Paris, France.
04:27The Statue of Liberty has an
iron pylon at the very center.
04:31You can think of this as the
spine to the Statue of Liberty.
04:35Then smaller support beams
were built around this
04:38to support the copper
pieces of the statue.
04:41The structure would allow the
statue to sway in the wind
04:44by up to 12 centimeters at the very top.
04:47This was all first built in Paris, France,
04:49and it took almost 10 years to build.
05:04Then, once completed, it was taken apart
05:06into 350 different pieces.
05:09All of this was shipped across the ocean
05:11to the United States.
05:13It took another four months
to reassemble the statue
05:16on top of the pedestal.
05:18The French paid for the statue itself,
05:19but the United States
paid for the pedestal.
05:22When the statue was finished in 1886,
05:25this was called Bedloe's Island,
05:27but today we call it Liberty Island.
05:31The Statue of Liberty has received
05:32a few renovations over the years.
05:35One of these renovations was the torch.
05:38It had been damaged and
was leaking rainwater.
05:40It was replaced in the 1980s.
05:43The original torch is still on display.
05:45I'll show you where later in the video.
05:49To get to Liberty Island,
you have to take the ferry,
05:52unless you're a really good swimmer,
05:53but I don't recommend that.
05:56A ferry leaves from two places,
05:58Liberty State Park in New Jersey
06:00and The Battery on the
southern tip of Manhattan.
06:03It takes about 15 minutes
to get to Liberty Island.
06:08The island has a land area
of just under 15 acres.
06:12This is Flagpole Plaza,
the Information Center,
06:15cafe and bookstore, and the gift shop.
06:19This is the Statue of Liberty Museum.
06:22This was opened in 2019,
so it's still fairly new.
06:26We head down this way
to get to the statue.
06:29There's plenty of areas
to walk around here.
06:32That way you can see the statue up close
06:33from any angle you choose.
06:36The base of the statue
looks like a star shape.
06:39This is the remnants
of an old military base
06:42It was used in the early 1800s,
06:44but now it's the base of
the Statue of Liberty.
06:46This part is called the pedestal.
06:49When you buy a pedestal
ticket, you can go anywhere
06:51on top of the base of the statue
06:53and all the way up to
the observation deck.
06:57If you want to go inside
the statue, you'll need
06:59to buy a ticket to go all
the way up to the crown.
07:02It's a little harder to get
ahold of one of these tickets.
07:04You usually have to reserve a few weeks
07:06or even months in advance.
07:08However, since the pandemic,
you can still go to the island,
07:11but the public isn't allowed
07:12into any part of the pedestal or statue.
07:15Hopefully, that'll change soon.
07:17To get to the inside of the
statue, we'll enter from here.
07:20These doors are called
the Centennial Doors.
07:23Remember that you have
to have a pedestal ticket
07:26Enter here to get into the pedestal lobby.
07:30The original torch to
the Statue of Liberty
07:32used to be right here in the center.
07:34When the museum opened in 2019,
07:37the torch was moved over there.
07:40So now the pedestal
lobby is wide open again.
07:43The old museum used to
be here in this area,
07:46but now most everything has been moved
07:48over to the new museum.
07:50Now it's time to make our way
to the top of the pedestal.
07:53You've got two options.
07:55The elevator is here
or the stairs are here.
08:00There are 192 steps to
the top of the pedestal.
08:06Inside here, you can
see the stairs to go up
08:09and the stairs to climb
back down on the other side.
08:13There are seven floors
inside the pedestal.
08:15So this is 1P, 2P and all the
way up to 7P, the very top.
08:21At level 3P, you can go outside
08:23and view the surrounding areas,
08:26and at level 6P is the
official Observation Deck.
08:30You can go outside either here or here.
08:33Once outside, you'll get
a good 360-degree view
08:36of anywhere in the harbor.
08:40If you have a ticket
to go up to the crown,
08:42then head up to level 7P.
08:44This is where you start your climb
08:45up to the top of the statue.
08:48This is called the Double Helix Stairway,
08:52one way up and the other
way to come back down.
08:56These stairs fit right in the middle
08:58of the support structure.
09:00There's not a lot of room on here,
09:02and I hope you're not afraid of heights.
09:05If you get tired, there
are a few resting places.
09:08And just in case, there's
also an emergency elevator
09:11inside of the statue, not
for regular public use.
09:14It carries only three people and can stop
09:16at a few of the platforms
along the spiral stairway.
09:20During your climb, you'll be
able to see the metal framework
09:22that holds up the statue.
09:24You can even see the individual ripples
09:26of the statue's dress.
09:29And finally, we reach the
top of the spiral stairs.
09:33This area is called the crown.
09:35Only a limited number of
people can be up here at once.
09:38It's a great place to
look out of the windows
09:41There's a total of 25
windows on the crown.
09:45On the inside, you can even
see the individual patterns
09:48of the statue's hair.
09:50On the back, You'll
also notice some lights
09:52that will be turned on at night.
09:58Once you are finished up here,
10:00you can start making your way down
10:01the other side of the
Double Helix Stairway.
10:04A lot of people ask about the torch.
10:06In 1916, there was an
explosion in New York Harbor
10:10that damaged the statue.
10:11Since then, they've
never reopened the torch
10:15However, maintenance workers
10:16still have to occasionally
climb the torch.
10:19Right at the statue's neck,
10:21you can see the gate that
gives access to the arm.
10:24Once through here, there's
a long ladder up the arm.
10:28It's not the easiest climb.
10:31Then onto another ladder,
and at the very top,
10:34there's a tiny door that opens
up to the fresh air outside.
10:39So hopefully, COVID restrictions
will continue to ease up,
10:42and visits will once again be
allowed inside of the statue.
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11:40My name's Jared, thanks for watching,
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