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by Gustav Eiffel. It stands atop an 89-foot pedestal designed by Richard Morris Hunt, with Emma Lazarus’s sonnet “The New Colossus” (“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses”) inscribed on a bronze plaque at the base. Over the course of time the statue has become precisely what its creators dreamed it would be: the single-most powerful symbol of American ideals and, as such, one of the world’s great monumental sculptures. Inside the statue’s pedestal is a museum that’s everything it should be: informative, entertaining, and quickly viewed. Highlights include the original flame (which was replaced because of water damage), full-scale replicas of Lady Liberty’s face and one of her feet, Bartholdi’s alternative designs for the statue, and a model of Eiffel’s intricate framework. You’re allowed access to the museum only as part of one of the free tours of the promenade (which surrounds the base of the pedestal) or the observatory (at the pedestal’s top).

The tours are limited to 3,000 participants a day. The only way to guarantee entry to the pedestal (which includes the museum) is with an advance purchase of a Reserve Ticket with Monument or Pedestal Pass, which should be purchased at least two days to two weeks before your visit (they can be reserved up to 180 days in advance by phone or online). No tickets are sold on the island; however, tickets are sold daily at the Castle Clinton Monument in Battery Park, and at Liberty State Park in New Jersey. Visitors who are unable to acquire a Reserve Ticket with Monument pass can still be issued a No Monument Access Pass, allowing them to walk around the island on the ground level without access to the monument. The narrow, double-helix stairs leading to the statue’s crown closed after 9/11, but access reopened on July 4, 2009. Approximately 240 people are allowed to visit the crown each day. Tickets are available online, but are usually booked well in advance up to three or four months ahead of the visit, so book early for crown tickets. If you can’t get tickets to the crown, you get a good look at the statue’s inner structure on the observatory tour. From the observatory itself there are fine views of the harbor and an up-close (but totally uncompromising) glimpse up Lady Liberty’s dress. If you’re on one of the tours, you’ll go through a security check more thorough than any airport screening, and you’ll have to deposit any bags in a locker. Liberty Island has a pleasant outdoor café for refueling. The only disappointment is the gift shop, which sells trinkets little better than those available from street vendors. | Liberty Island | 10004 | 212/363–3200, 877/523–9849 ticket reservations | Free, ferry $12 round-trip, crown tickets $3 | Daily 9:30–5, extended hrs in summer (current hrs online at | www.nps.gov/stli/planyourvisit/hours.xhtml); reservations www.statuecruises.com. Darren_boch@nps.gov

WORTH NOTING IN THE FINANCIAL DISTRICT AND SOUTH STREET SEAPORT

City Hall.

You just might spot news crews jockeying on the front steps as they attempt to interview city officials, which is perhaps all you want to know about City Hall. But if the history of local politics is truly your thing, the hall is open for tours. Among the highlights within are the Victorian-style City Council Chamber; the Rotunda where President Lincoln lay in state in 1865 under a soaring dome supported by 10 Corinthian columns; and the Governor’s Room, which includes a writing table that George Washington used in 1789 when New York was the U.S. capital. If nothing else, take a moment to snap a photo of the austere columned exterior.

Take a moment to enjoy the small but lovely City Hall Park, bounded by Broadway to the west and Chambers Street to the north. The layers of history buried under the city’s compulsion to reinvent itself were interestingly revealed in portions of the northern part of the park in 1991, when an African burial ground was uncovered during construction of a federal office building nearby. It has since been declared a city landmark. Aside from historical interest, though, the