Yesterday the Statue of Liberty was reopened for the first time since last year’s Hurricane Sandy, as Americans all over the World celebrated their July 4th Independence Day.
Written by Chris White
The event took place yesterday morning at a ribbon-cutting ceremony outside the 46 meter high statue, attended by New York’s Mayor, Mayor Bloomberg. With the reopening crowds are now once again flocking to the popular tourist attraction.
The grand reopening comes as a great relief to organizers who had aimed to restore the 127-year-old statue to its former functioning glory, after the 12 acre Liberty Island where she is situated was left deluged by the storm.
Although the statue itself survived relatively intact, other infrastructure such as railings, paving stones, docks, electrical systems, sewage works and boilers were almost completely destroyed.
The restoration effort has involved hundreds of National Park workers and volunteers, shovelling mud and debris away from the site and final repairs are still underway however, nearby Ellis Island remains closed. It is believed that the damage inflicted by the hurricane on both sites has amounted to approximately US$59 million / £39 million.
One local patron Heather Leykam who attended the reopening said: “This to us, Liberty Island, is really about a rebirth. It is a sense of renewal for the city and the country.”
Independence Day commemorates the declaration of independence of the United States of America from Great Britain, on July 4th 1776.
The declaration heralded 7 years of continued warfare between Great Britain and the United States, which Great Britain eventually conceded after French intervention enabled the United States to drive out the remaining British toe-holds in the Thirteen Colonies.
New York was the only Colony of the original Thirteen Colonies to abstain from ratifying the American Declaration of Independence, because most of the Colony’s urban population wanted New York to remain as part of the British Empire.
New York City remained in British hands until the end of the war in 1783, when Great Britain agreed to unilaterally evacuate all of the Thirteen Colonies.
Daily Sun Breaking News: Get the technology advantage you need to stay ahead of the competition. New payment processing services help you migrate your pos system to the cloud. Works with Visa Mastercard and Discover Processors.
