Hi everyone, I'm Emily and I'm Vince and this is the lighthouse
Lowdown
Very good intro 50th episode
edition
It's very exciting the big five. Oh, I kind of I've said this before but when I started this I wanted us to get to
15 and that was my goal
See look at us. So we're doing something special for this episode. I wanted it to be special
We don't have a history of we because I suspect
That this is going to be very long. Okay, nice or at least there's a possibility for it to be pretty long
Because I took lots of notes. Okay, which is funny because it's like
95% history lesson 5% lighthouse. We love history. We also love lighthouses. Yeah, they're in there. It's just not a
Lighthouse history is fun, too a major a major boom
So today we're talking about excuse my pronunciation
their liberty a clone lemon or
Liberty enlightening the world also best known as that you have liberty lady
My lady my lady liberty. So you're speaking French. Yeah, France. I'll say I don't know how to say that
there's lots of French names in here and
There's like an English pronunciation, which is just sad and the French pronunciation and the guy it's like a video
you can watch that it's like he did a series of
Prominent French people in history how to pronounce their names and he's French and so he'll say it and he's like I know it's really hard for
People who don't speak French to say this. So here's the English pronunciation. I'm like, oh boy
We have a crutch so most people know what the Statue of Liberty is I'm assuming
internationally
Because you know, we know very I mean we know what the Eiffel Tower is
So I would think people know what the lady I think so liberty is it's one of our international symbols
Yeah, but I'll break it down so that for the people that don't know they can hear about Statue of Liberty
So it's an enormous copper
Neo classical sculpture in New York City on Liberty Island in the New York Harbor. It's a figure of
Libertas which I could not find the pronunciation for so
That one's Latin and it's the Roman goddess of Liberty or freedom. Oh, so she's supposed to be a depiction of a
Greek god, I think
I did not know that yeah in her right hand she holds a torch and in the left is a tablet that says July 4th
1776 which was in Roman numerals, which was when the US declared independence
And at her feet are a broken shackle and chains that she's walking out of which signifies the
abolition of slavery after the American Civil War and the idea for her was actually born
At the very end of the American Civil War by a French abolitionist who supported the Union during the Civil War
I did not know it was related to the Civil War at all directly related
Which is very interesting abolition of slavery. Yeah, so from the back you can see that her other foot is pushing off
So it's like she's stepping out of the chains of slavery cool
Very cool on her head is a crown with seven spikes which signifies the Sun the seven seas and the seven continents
Which is why she's called liberty enlightening the world and not just liberty and lightning, you know the Americas or whatever
That's awesome. There's a gift from the French to the United States
It was and that's basically as far as it goes in like American history classes
They just say like I was a gift from the French but there's so much cool history and like how it came to be that
I'm gonna cover it. Oh
Cover it awesome. I was gonna ask a bunch of questions, but I'll hold my tongue
Okay, so where did you come from?
She was a gift from the French people which is important to specify that the government was not involved in
Anything that happened with the Statue of Liberty really like there was some commute
I mean obviously there was communication had to be like I
Think the French government funded
the shipment of the Statue of Liberty, but everything
was funded by the people French people and US people because
The French funded the building of the statue and the US funded the building of the pedestal
Which is like half the height of the entire statue
Nice. I'm getting ahead of myself. So the idea for the Statue of Liberty was born in
1865 at the end of the Civil War a French historian and abolitionist
Edward de la Balay
Yeah, if anybody watches a national treasure, he's in there. Is that the second one?
It must be I don't know. Oh, no, maybe it's the first one. I just remember them saying well, yeah
He gets all excited talking to the French police
Okay, this is off topic drone type just a little bit but there is a third
National treasure like kind of in the works. No, no, no, come on. It's good. Nick Cage is gonna be in it
Okay, it's the same producer and everything. All right. I have
Doubts. Okay. Yeah, maybe I shouldn't get my hopes up, but I hope it's great
Okay, so anyway la Balay
Suggested a monument to commemorate a hundred years of independence that
would be in 1876 the Perseverance
Whoa
the Perseverance of American democracy and the abolition of slavery
So it's supposed to kind of just be like an all-in-one gift to the American people. Yeah, the conversation inspired
Frederick Augusta
damn it
Bartoldi Bartoldi. Oh
Man, I'm glad this is not my episode. I'm yeah Bartoldi Bartoldi
Bartoldi Bartoldi who was a French artist French sculptor
Although he didn't start work on it right away due to having other projects in the work. And this is this very interesting
He in the late 1860s. So around the same time that this was suggested by his friend lovely he approached the
Ruler of Egypt, I guess with a plan to build Egypt carrying the light to Asia which was going to be a huge
lighthouse what hang on boom
This was his plan for it. So you can clearly see like the Statue of Liberty
Kind of like yeah form came from by looking at a picture of what his plans were for this lighthouse. That's awesome
Yeah
So it was going to be a depiction of an ancient Egyptian female peasant
Robed and holding a torch aloft at the northern entrance of the Suez Canal in Port Said
Oh, yeah, because it had just opened and so it was like this big deal
He wanted to make this statue in this lighthouse to go at the front
But it would have been too expensive for Egypt to have foot the bill. Yeah
Wait, what?
The Suez Canal is the one that got blocked by a cargo ship not long ago. Oh, no way. I'm pretty sure
Yeah, that was two years ago. Exactly
I'm pretty sure it was two years ago time really is getting weird doesn't exist
But anyway, so obviously you can see how we got our Statue of Liberty from his earlier plans. It's kind of crazy
Cool painting too. Just to show a mock-up. Yeah, I wonder if he did it because I mean he was an artist
So let me just throw this together real quick. Yeah, just show you what I'm thinking. You have watercolors
So anyway in 1871 Bartoldi sailed to the US I
Guarantee I'm saying that wrong and I'm gonna say his name so many times during this episode
So I want to apologize in advance to everybody, especially the French people who gifted us this amazing statue
But he sailed to the US to pitch the idea for his sculpture because it wasn't a government thing
He had to go and actually convince people to donate and like be on board
Yeah for having this this big statue when he arrived on the boat coming into the harbor
He saw Bedloe's Island and knew that it would be the perfect place and I have a map
Although I don't think I'm close enough for it to be super helpful
But if you look oh, yeah, you can see it. It's underneath this New Jersey
That's Bedloe's Island, which is where we currently have the Statue of Liberty and see how like there's this dotted line around it
Yeah, it's technically in New Jersey, but it's owned by New York
They like worked out the details so that they could still keep the island whenever like lines were getting redrawn
That's crazy. Isn't that cool? I did not know that so what was there before when it was was it Bedloe's Island?
It was already owned by the government because it was a defensive position for coming into the harbor
So that was the good thing is that he got there wanted this island and President Grant assured him that they'd be able to use it
Because they already owned it
So he had some say and you know where they were going to put it. Of course he needed a like government
Agreement for where he was going to put this colossal statue
Yeah
So Bartoldi
Crossed the United States twice by rail
Spreading the idea everywhere he went for eventual funding and support this guy just got on a train and just crossed the entire United States twice
Just to get the word out there
I just I never considered that the actual sculptor would go out and just be like hey fund my statue
Like this was a starving artist sort of thing. Yeah, well, that's yeah, that's quite an adventure
And especially because now we know him. He's like it's a big name
He did great things like all kinds of cool stuff
But before anything he was just a guy trying to get his name out there and get his art out there and
Did it in the biggest way possible?
So at that time like I just told you it's a depiction of libertas
Liberty? Yeah
What?
Libertas is it just means liberty?
It's the the Roman goddess. Oh the goddess. Yeah
Right probably with the word liberty coming out
Yeah, right probably where the word liberty comes from nice. Yeah, I think it's just liberty in latin
But she was already depicted a ton in the united states
So it wasn't like this weird figure that he just pulled out of nowhere. It was like it was on
Oh, I actually have pictures
I also did not fully set in my slideshow pictures, please pictures
Boom. Wow. So the first picture is what's on top of the u.s. Capitol building
and
It's a depi it's called um statue of freedom, which is also libertas
And there's like a whole bunch of history and drama surrounding this because a lot of people thought she was a native american
When they put it up there tassels. Yeah, and
Her headdress or you know, like her helmet was different and they had to change it because yeah, there's like all kinds of
Stuff that happened with the building of the statue which I didn't get too deep into because i'm talking about a different statue
Sure, but the u.s coins also for like centuries had a depiction of libertas on the back
So I included a couple of those from the 1700s 18s and 1900s super cool. Isn't that neat? So she was everywhere. It wasn't like um
Just a random figure. Yeah, it was it was widely
Um accepted in the united states as like a depiction of what we were aiming for
Yeah in 1875 so 10 years a decade after he suggested this
Label a suggested the french people financed the building of the statue because they had tried to get government funding and it wasn't happening
Which also happened in the u.s
They tried to get a hundred thousand dollars and was vetoed and they tried to get fifty thousand dollars vetoed
And then they decided it was just gonna have to be crowdfunded which is the first time it was kind of like
That crowdfunding happened a huge project. Yeah
He also suggested the u.s fund the pedestal and the site for where the statue was going to be so it wasn't like all on
the french people which some people had a problem with but
It wasn't like it wasn't like half and half. They still paid way more than we did
It was like two-thirds, but to receive a gift you have to pedestal. Yeah true
Gotcha, I don't know. I would have thought it was cool
If you're getting a 300 foot statue, I'd be like, you know, okay today
With the the stuff they're like, hey you want to pay a tax to okay?
true, you know what I mean like um
Like all of the sports stuff going on right now in Kansas City Kansas City sports is asking for tax money
To build a new stadium that no one no one I don't want it. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, let's not
We don't need it. I don't think it's not it's it's super not necessary, but people want it so that
We don't get left or something like the chiefs don't leave but it's
It's abnormal for sports to leave their hometowns like that's my politics
But but the point is if they were saying hey, let's build a yeah
Multi-million dollar pedestal to put a multi-million dollar and you can pay for it from the french. I'd be like
Didn't we already do this one time?
Can you just polish that one it all went over but it was at first it was very very difficult to get funding and right
It was just getting vetoed everywhere. So Bartoldi began sculpting designs in 1870
So it was like five years after the suggestion
So he was on board right away and he actively oversaw sculpting between 1875 and 1884
That's how long it took to finish the statue. It was nine years. It was done by hammering 31 tons
of copper
I like what tons of copper sheets onto iron framework, which was done by Gustav Eiffel
So the guy who built the Eiffel Tower heard that name responsible for the internals of the Statue of Liberty big iron
guy pretty cool. Yeah, one of the earliest examples of curtain wall construction
You know what that is? Nope. Okay, the outer layer is not load-bearing and so it's like attached but kind of floating
Like there was like room between it so that
In the high winds of the harbor it could shift without um, like putting pressure on the statue. That's cool. Isn't that cool?
Yeah, they also used asbestos
Between the iron and copper to prevent galvanic corrosion. Yeah, which
We'll find out later didn't work
So then it became extremely hard to deal with it
Yeah, and there was tons of corrosion, but i'll talk about there's a restoration a humongous restoration
They did later that i'll cover. Okay. So as each piece was completed like
Statue of Liberty was built in pieces like her head and her arm her hand like everything was separated
And as each piece was completed they were displayed at like international
Conventions and like they had it in manhattan for a couple of years like her um torch bearing arm. Yeah
That's cool. Here's a picture. I think this was in display in france
And you can just go and take a look at it and in all the old pictures
You can tell that it's still copper colored, which I think is so funny because now she's green
But they're always dark like very dark which
I'll talk about that later as well. It's super cool. Yeah
Says colossal hand and torch liberty. Yeah, the guy's like as I build these I need somewhere to put them
Yeah, i'll just send them around the world
Yeah, and it would gain funding people see it and they're like, oh I can donate to make this happen. Like that's so cool. So in france
To get the money bartoldi
Appealed to the rich and powerful to donate as well as sold tickets for people to watch the sculpting work
Which I think I would definitely pay to see people hammering away
Yeah to like build stuff and then they would like to buy them and then they would like to buy them
Like build stuff and he also did auctions and sold
Small models of what the statue would look like and it's like a six inch one was a dollar
And a 12 inch one was five dollars. So that'd be so cool
At the time one dollar was like thirty three dollars. So it's cool. Yeah, cool. It is an artist-made piece. Mm-hmm
Or maybe it was mass produced or something but like a mold of what it's going to look like
I bet you they're worth a couple more dollars today
they have one they have one of the um models that he made in
The liberty museum which is on the island that she's on. So talk about that, too
It's gonna be such a long episode i'm so sorry, it's all good. Yeah, why am I apologizing i'm
Gifting you with all this knowledge. I'm along for the ride
So that's how he got money in france the u.s
Stalled immediately because they couldn't get any funding at all. So then the publisher
Of the new york world newspaper joseph pullitzer. Oh, i've heard of that name. Mm-hmm pullitzer prize pullitzer prize
My god friday afternoon sipping my coffee sipping on that starbucks
Hmm hot coffee was a good move. Oh, yeah, I guess I wouldn't have considered getting a hot coffee, but i'm fully on board
It's a move. So the publisher started to oh my gosh started a donation drive to get a hundred thousand dollars
$20,000, okay, which at the time
2.4 million dollars. So just like hey, let's just like a little momentum. So he started a donation drive
So in the newspaper, he said no matter how much you donate even if it's just like a penny
Your name will be in the newspaper
so there's this huge incentive for anybody and everybody to end up in the newspaper and you can like
add a note about yourself like
um
I wish I'd taken a note of an example, but it was like
young lonely old lady like donates two dollars like you could just
Say whatever you wanted to say about yourself and he would print it. So
obviously that gained a lot of traction, especially with like school children like lots of
Young children just gave whatever they had like just a couple of pennies or whatever because it would be so cool for your name to be in a newspaper
It's the gilfundme the original because that was like the only form of of media was just to see the newspaper
So like to have your name in there would be so cool, especially in a big city, New York. Yeah, so you attracted 120,000
um people who contributed and most gave less than a dollar which is like I said 33 dollars what
Thirty three dollars. I mean I would pay more than that. I think
So that was a big move pollitzer. Yeah, so he pretty much single-handedly
Was like the orchestrator of raising the money for the pedestal of the statue and he also did auctions of artwork and poetry
And included a sonnet which has lines on a plaque on the statue. Oh cool
I should have also made note of that but I have so many notes. It's unbelievable. It's called the new colossus
and um heard of that he had a poet write
Some poetry to donate so that they could auction it off. Yeah, i've heard all these things but it's been almost 20 years
You think you heard it in school? Oh, yeah, I've heard those words
I feel like I didn't hear anything about this in school. History was like awesome when I was in school. I loved history. Yeah, but then
Um real life came crashing down. We had to become engineers. Yeah, gross. Had to
Oh
Another cool thing is that I don't know if it was with his own money or with like leftover money or something
But after the completion of fundraising he commissioned a giant stained glass piece of the statue
Which is now at Columbia University that you can go and like see. Let's see it. That is cool. Isn't that so pretty?
Two earths. I wonder
How big we're talking
And how much was it to commission? I don't know pretty cool though. Yeah, very cool. Incredible. That was
Fundraising the Statue of Liberty. It's crazy, but it did the trick and the sculpture was shipped to the u.s
In crates and assembled in what was called Bedloz Island at the time right now. It's different in the end
It cost France two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, which is five point nine million dollars today
Nothing in the u.s. A hundred thousand which is two point four
And the Statue of Liberty was entirely crowd funded besides. I think transportation
Wow, so the u.s. Did a big celebration a big unveiling of the Statue of Liberty
And it was the first ticker tape parade, which i've heard of because it's in france
Apparently they went by the stock market and they threw ticker tape as confetti and nowadays
It's confetti. Oh, yeah, they make confetti now. Yeah, so that was a ticker tape parade. I was like, I don't I don't know
What year was the unveiling in the u.s. 1887
The the whole like because then they had a ceremony by president cleveland on october 28th 1886
And oh, I have a cool picture, too
This was a an etching which was a depiction of what it looked like when they unveiled it. They had a fireworks and
There was like the a big parade of boats and everything that came to go and see it. So that is cool. Yeah, it was pretty cool
And it's so funny seeing this
engraving and just like
New york was not a big city
Of skyscrapers at that it was the late 1800s. It was all just like looked like a normal
Yeah, I don't know when all that started. You know, there's the famous photos of
I think it's new york where they started building the high-rise. Yeah skyscrapers. They had the iron workers people were dying every single day
like awful
But I think that was early 1900s. So after this but yeah
I think it had to have been yeah, because it's
In like old photos of it even there's no buildings in the background because it's so high up that nothing
Comes close to it. There's a movie
Sorry, there's a movie I was looking at watching. I've already seen it's called hill doggo. I tell you this no, it's about a
Cowboy if you will a western man who participates in a great horse race
It's really it's like 2004 2005. It came out
But it's set in the 1890s, I think and there's a scene a cut scene where they're in new york city and
Getting on a boat to go
To europe and uh the Statue of Liberty is new in the oh, they're like looking at it
That's pretty cool. Oh, that's so cool. Yeah, I touched very briefly on that as well, but
This so this commemorative moment
is when
It began its history as a lighthouse
And it's not a success story. Oh, no, so
Okay, I have so many questions. No, no, go ahead. It was designed to be a lighthouse. No, that's the problem
Yeah, it was not designed to be a lighthouse
He made plans for another statue that looked very similar to be a lighthouse, but this one was not going to be so but the egypt
Egyptian the egypt one was supposed to be a lighthouse. Yeah, it was kind of a okay
Yeah, so it kind of was a
Yeah, so it kind of crossed over but he obviously did not like put forth any plans that would make this lighthouse
I don't really know what happened that they randomly decided to make it an age navigation
You know that tall thing it's tall. It has a light like let's make it a lighthouse
Trees for navigation they used to point at bays and say you have a tall elm over there
Yeah, you know that tall tree or they would like put sticks just like a tall stick
So like okay, it's a day mark but like at night it was supposedly just pitch black like you can see it
I'll go into the details, but november 16th 1886 so less than a month after the ceremony. Yeah
President cleveland declared the statue quote
Be at once placed under the care and superintendents of the lighthouse board and that it be from henceforth made
Under the care and superintendents of the lighthouse board and that it be from henceforth maintained by said board as a beacon end quote
ah like
What do you mean?
Here take this you can't just say that it's okay. It's a lighthouse. It's like this. You don't know
So funny, so between then and its ceremony lighting the sculpture had been just like an absolute
part of my language part of my french shit show
Because it wasn't made to light up like he didn't consider like how is this thing to be lit and it wasn't his problem
He built the statue and then I was like, okay if you want to light it up, you can light it up but floodlights
Were was like not a thing yet. Yeah, and so they kind of
Started floodlight like it's funny because in this etching it's shown all lit up, but that just wasn't a thing
Well, yeah, they probably fireworks lit it up. Yeah
electricity was also a new thing and so it was
You got this giant statue. How new out on an island
Uh
Electric lights first appeared in 1880 on broadway
The first were brand new. Yeah, we're talking brand spanking new. That's
Yeah, you had that six years later light bulbs that we want floodlights
Being able to cover. Yeah, that was 300 feet on an island in the middle of water. Not possible
With that technology
With that technology the requirements were crazy
But it was first attempted to be lit
The evening after its dedication
And it was so faint that the world said it looked quote more like a glow worm than a beacon. Oh
Absolutely tragic shame
Bartoli never outlined how he meant to light the torch or the statue
Like I said, he didn't plan on it
So it was just a major struggle of getting it all tied together and there were lots of ideas thrown around about what it was
Going to look like what they wanted it to look like that. It's outlined really well in
lighthouse friends dot com
So if anyone wanted to go there and wikipedia also has tons of information on it
I know wikipedia is not like a reputable source, but was there electricity on the island? No, they had to lay uh
Wires or whatever, you know, um under tables. Yeah along the bottom of the harbor and that was new technology
Yeah, that's crazy. It was just funny that they were just like oh crap like how are we gonna like this?
Run a cord out here
Solar panels. No, do you know and he's like no leds. No batteries. No. Yeah
so there are all kinds of ideas like
beams straight up from the torch into the clouds or like
beams on her face coming from the torch like
All kinds of cool ideas, but there was no way to execute them and there was also no money
Which is the other thing like nobody?
funded
Anything other than getting the statue put together crazy. There are
Details I wasn't going to cover all of them because they did all kinds of stuff like they cut
portholes in the torch and like put colored
Sheets of glass so that it was like I don't know. It was all kinds of all kinds of weird stuff
But check out our links for details. You can find all kinds of stuff there
Cool. So November 1st was the first day that the statue was reliably lit
But the american electrical manufacturing company who donated a lot of the equipment to light up the lighthouse
Only agreed to keep the lights on for one week. So it was like, uh, yeah
They're like here. We'll donate all this stuff, but we're not gonna fund
The electricity that lights the lighthouse. You're gonna have to figure out funding like we'll fund it for a week
but after that you're gonna have to figure it out so
So congress so far had not been able to secure funding
So after bartoldy came and approved the lighting situation, she was turned off for two weeks
So she was lit for a week and then down again for two weeks
And during this time the lighthouse board worked behind the scenes to secure funding and a team
And so then the president naturally rolled over responsibility to the lighthouse board. Let's go lighthouse establishment. Let's go
November 22nd 1886 the statue of liberty became an operational lighthouse
And the long story short is that it just she just sucked at it
There's no question about it. She was not made to be a lighthouse
So she failed as a lighthouse the lighthouse board were totally against having this lighthouse
Or the statue of liberty as a lighthouse
Because they didn't think it made any sense as an aid to navigation. They didn't need a lighthouse there
They never planned on putting one there. Yeah. Well, I mean they're already stretched thin and then you have
Oh, yeah, we built this artistic piece and uh, it's pretty tall. So oh, it's a lighthouse. Yeah, you take care of it. Oh
Oh no, you know hot potato. Yeah
So they tried a lot of different methods to increase the effectiveness of at least the outer lights like the flood lights
Because when they first turned them on it was like illuminating
Certain parts of the statue and then the rest of her was just in shadow
So it was like oh no, like what is happening and bartley came back in 1893 with suggestions for how it could help
But nothing really worked at illuminating the statue how they wanted it to
But as a lighthouse, I mean there there's there's details. She had a fresnel lens. So like hell, yeah
The focal plane was at 305 feet above sea level. Yeah, so I remember in the tallest I think the first episode
Other than the lighthouse of alexandria
Yeah, hang on. Let me check. Isn't Hatteras like 260 280. No, not that tall. Uh,
230
to
Two-something i'm guessing two
I'm guessing
Focal plane of 192 180 feet
Tallest in the u.s. Okay. I wasn't close. I thought it was 200 something. It was two something. Yeah, but anyway
Yeah, the statue of liberty was the tallest lighthouse
ever
besides the lighthouse of alexandria, which was
Somewhere between 338 and 387 feet
dang so
Crazy, which is so crazy because there's
Almost no evidence that it ever existed because its pieces were used to build something else alexandria. Yeah
Yeah, I need to cover that one as well. So did uh
So did uh, the lady liberty fail as a lighthouse because too tall didn't have the lighting technology
Wasn't needed. I mean as an aid to navigation. There was no gusto to making it work because it wasn't necessary. It was just kind of like
Okay, the lights aren't working
Who knows a lot about lights in a structure like this because like the upkeep of
No, as a lighthouse was not problematic. They weren't upset that it was this huge statue
It was like we have tons of experience working with tall structures and it was just that they were peeved that they were given
This thing that they didn't consider to be actually useful in navigating. So they're just like why do we have this?
But anyway, her light was fixed white had nine arc lights inside a small fresnel lens
So I don't know exactly which order it was but it was a fresnel lens
And it should have been seen 24 and a quarter miles out to sea
But it just didn't like it if you think about it
The torch is not glass
So you're not like you'd be seeing it through these tiny port holes that they cut it just didn't make sense
There was a keeper. Can you imagine?
The keeper of the statue of liberty be crazy a lot of climbing going on. I think it was a lighthouse for
16 years. Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah, and he was the keeper the whole time
There's no other head keeper and originally they had four assistant keepers
And then it dwindled to two and then to one and then it was cut
So his name was albert e littlefield
They all lived so all of these assistant keepers and the head keeper lived with their families on the island in a three-story building
and
Albert was a machinist for the lighthouse board for five years before serving at the statue of liberty as a keeper
And then because of his background in electrical stuff, he was paid a thousand dollars a year
When normally it was like four hundred dollars a year dude is pulling money. Yeah, because he had expertise special machinist
fabricator man
After the statue of liberty was cut he returned to being an electrical engineer slash machinist
Until he retired in 1919. Do you know who you worked for or there was a lighthouse board?
Oh electrical engineer and machinist for the lighthouse board
That's cool. Yeah, I bet he has a fun story. Yeah, I mean more than what we just said. There's tons of files
About him after death. I don't know what happened like a ghost
He wrote letters
He fell in love with lady. It was like all kinds of legal stuff happening
Oh, I don't know if like and it was always in it seems like his son's name
So maybe there was some kind of I don't know. There was some kind of drama going on after life that overtook
his legacy in
1901 president roosevelt ordered the discontinuation of the lighthouse and it was extinguished in march
1902 and handed over to the war department
Because originally the island was cut into three pieces part of it was the war department
Part of it was lighthouse board and part of it was something else. I can't remember some other
Department of it was still used as a defensive position. Yeah for a little bit. Yeah
So at least the lighthouse board part was handed back over to the war department
So that that's like i'm gonna keep going but that's the history of it as a lighthouse. That's
16 years is a pretty good run, but we're not even like we're barely into the 1900s
And there's still like so much to talk about the statue of liberties. Yeah
So i'm going to keep going for anyone that loves history
past the lighthouse mumbo jumbo you're gonna get it
By the time it was extinguished the statue was already being talked about in the press for its creeping green patina
So what we know today is the statue of liberty was
Alarming people that they were starting to see this patina show up on all the copper
I have a picture that i'll show you of this like really old
Sepia photo of yeah, what it looked like before and you can tell in this picture that it's still copper
So the statue itself was pretty dark because
Pretty much immediately after its unveiling it stopped being metallic and shiny because patina like oxidation
And so it became like a dull copper. So it was kind of hard to see her details
So the patina was actually kind of a blessing
So it started in 1901 and it was a little bit of a
Patina was actually kind of a blessing so it started in 1901 and it started to turn green and fully covered by 1906. So
Okay, it was very fast
like relatively fast process of
Turning it's right on the water. Yeah, it's inevitable
But congress thought it was evidence of corrosion
And so they appropriated almost sixty three thousand dollars
Which is over two million dollars to paint over it and do restoration work. No. Yeah, they were painting it
no, because
Everyone had a lot to say about that
because people thought that the green was nice they liked it because
Black the original was so dark that the the light like allowed you to see shadows and stuff
So the the army corps of engineers protested as did the public
And after their investigation the engineers concluded that it protected the skin the patina actually wasn't being problematic
But it was like a good thing and quote softened the outlines of the statue and made it beautiful. Well, they probably I was thinking about copper
They probably used copper because it was malleable so they could form it not because they wanted a golden shiny
You know it I don't know but i'm i'm guessing it wasn't like
Copper that you see when you strip a wire where it's shiny and it's brand new and they had to have known
I mean they used copper for ages like they had to have known that it was going to oxidize
copper working metal working though in the 1800s is still
Not perfect. I mean even there's the whole thing. I won't go too far, but oh the
If you look up the metal the steel that was used in the titanic which was built what 1913?
Somewhere in there. We talked about it recently. Yeah, the titanic ship
had a
Ductile to brittle transition temperature and dbt that when it hit the iceberg the metal split rather than
Oh, yeah deforming like anyways, uh, that's its own thing, but metal working was not perfected
Yeah, maybe it's still not didn't have all the details
Yeah, but so lady liberty was probably picked for malleability for copper not that they wanted to remain that color
But I wonder if they thought about it. Oh, well, I was just thinking
How strange that they didn't think that it would turn green or like wouldn't gift it and be like by the way
because
The like the arm itself we showed a picture. Yeah was shipped around and it was in manhattan for two years and it's like nobody
Saw anything or like there was no
It was it took nine years to build this the copper didn't have any sort. I don't know
it looks like it corroded bottom to top as far as
Uh being closer to the water. I would guess yeah, maybe just exposed metal. So it was fun that they
They referred to it as like more beautiful. Yeah over time like a lot. I feel like nowadays if something happened
It would be like no put it back to the way that it was before like this is a failure
But they just loved the way that she had turned out just over time. Yeah, it's very unique
Yeah, and they and they talked a lot about like referencing the statue as like this beautiful
you know, it's just a statue but
people especially like immigrants or
people coming over from
Europe or whatever just saw it as this
Amazing like in that the sonnet that I was talking about earlier. She describes her as the mother of exiles
So it's like supposed to be a welcome to all the weary that are coming to america
And you have to pass right by her coming into harbor
so all these people just just shitty travel months of being on the sea in a ship and
Having to leave everything behind. They don't know they don't speak our language. They don't know anybody they're just
severing ties with
Everything that they know show up in america and are welcomed by this like incredible
depiction of liberty just like a freedom and I mean at that time
Coming to america was like we had tons of land all the opportunities. It was just you could be anything
You could learn everything. It's just
It's like this really
really powerful image to come in after all this hardship and just know that like you were about to start anew and it was like an exciting thing
I've heard people talk about that. I mean
in written history like
How how much of a badass you'd have to be?
To pack your life into a suitcase or a couple and then go to a place you've never seen
And you don't even use your currency like you don't have anything you show up and you tell them your name and they misspell it
That's your name
You know what I mean? Like yes, even bailey. My last name was part of that system that was misspelled
I did want to say though
So that's I mean just like today if they're like, oh we can move to mars like there's a new colony on mars
It's gonna be great. That would be like I don't want to go there. Let's get rid of all of our stuff
We'll just bring a suitcase and we'll be in this new place
Yeah, I think I have a very privileged life and a lot of the immigrants probably did not no
But it's hard is ellis island out here. Yes
It's next it's nearby. It's like included in the same. I'll talk about it later
It was like during the restoration they included both islands in like the restoration efforts
So cool, I didn't talk too much about it, but there's um, it's like an onboarding. Yes
I couldn't think of a name but doc. Yeah on ellis island. So
It kind of solidified. It's like
Originally bartoldi meant for this to be a symbol of enlightenment, you know, like this
powerful symbol of like america being
Intelligent for having all like the freedom and the liberties our freedom of speech and this bill of rights amazing. Yeah
declaration, but it became this
Beacon of welcome of anyone who was coming into america, which I prefer
They had a quote from a greek immigrant who came in on a boat and saw the statue of liberty
And he said quote I saw the statue of liberty and I said to myself lady
You're such a beautiful you open your arms and you get all the foreigners here
Give me a chance to prove that I am worth it to do something to be someone in america
And always that statue was on my mind think about the symbolism too
It's this thing you're seeing probably on a boat, which is incredible
And it's it's a gift from a western european
Established people the french which are respected through most of history, right?
We all are at some point, but the french are are well known for many good things
They've given this to us. The people have given this to us if you know the whole story. Yeah, and then
When given the gift the americans rose up and built a pedestal dedicated an island
And put it in a foremost location
Like new york. Yeah, it's just incredible so around that time whenever they
Around that time whenever they gifted or at least had the idea and kind of started to execute the statue laboulet
Referenced that this time was oppressive for the french. There was the the russian
war there was a war with russia or something that they lost and
People a lot of people say that this statue was actually like a huge middle finger
From france to its government where the people funded this depiction of liberty and freedom
Um because the government in france was so oppressive. It was like
Like we're gonna fund this big thing like it's an fu
I don't know history very well. Didn't we fight the french on world war one?
If i'm wrong someone out there is just gonna be so upset
Let me look it up. No, no, no, we didn't we came we came to their aid. Yeah
britain france
We're the allies
britain from french
italians
austria at the time in germany were the axis
And I don't even know if they call them that actually in world war one. That's a world war two term, but
Oh, no, see this is um, oh
A war okay. So this is why I got confused
It's called the franco
Prussian war I should probably butchered that but it's not russia. That's why I got confused
It's france and germany. Okay was the war that they lost and like had oppressive government
Yada yada. Yeah, so
World war one which was 1914 to 18
The allied powers were france uk russia italy and us
And the central powers whatever they were called germany austria hungary
the ottoman empire
bulgaria and other minor central powers
and russia was
Allied no, yeah, russia was allied we were with the russians. Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. Sorry
Sorry all of history, but i'm uneducated
I know we really don't know I promise I can tell you about certain things
I just can't tell you about world war one history. Yeah, my great-grandfathers fought in world war one all three of them. Oh
they were uh
My my grandpa's dad
and brothers
um highly
They were canadian they highly discouraged
um
Not fighting in the war
And my grandpa complacency was in college world war two kicked off
He was like I am not
Going to world war two voluntarily and he was drafted
And it's a whole long story, but yeah pretty wild
Whole family relationship world war one and two wicked wicked surprised. I'm here. But here we are. Yeah
So that's the statute of liberty
For people I remember that it was a lighthouse because we mentioned it
I think you did early on and like trivia first episode or something. Yeah, and then yeah trivia
I'm pretty sure I did but super cool. Yeah, even though it sucked as a lighthouse
It tried its best
But the war department held control of the light through world war one when in 1916 german saboteurs
Set off a huge explosion near the statue. I didn't know that there was a shipment of I don't know if it was missiles or explosives
Or something being sent to russia from the u.s
And they blew it up and so it cost
2.7 million dollars in today's money just to fix the island and the right arm
Was damaged and so originally you could climb up the right arm
Into the torch and see from up there
But at this point it was closed for like fixing and reconstruction stuff and it was never opened again
Really? Yeah, never once I mean never again today
It's been closed forever
1916 that's interesting. So
Maybe you're gonna tell me but when you go and visit, what can you see? Well, i'm gonna let you know. Oh, oh, oh there's details
It's actually quite nice. It's very inclusive. I'm excited to tell you about it
so
Around this time when they closed the right arm and fixed it from all the explosion the statue finally got adequate floodlights
Wow, it only took like
30 years. Yeah
just a few decades, but you know you you
Gotta make do with what you got and electricity just needed some time to grow before
Could really handle something of the stature, but let's see how I get I pronounce it
Oh gosh
gutson
borglum
I'm sorry if that's wrong. Um, but anyway, he later sculpted mount rushmore
So we got lots of big names around the Statue of Liberty. He redesigned the torch replacing a lot of the copper
of the torch with stained glass
What listen?
i'm a stained glass artist and
That is an awful idea to replace something
metal
300 feet something feet replace metal. I'll show you a picture of what it looked like before they replaced it again
And don't look okay stained glass itself
Don't don't don't don't you know?
I'll show you a picture. You'll understand. But basically that's a huge failure of a decision. That's fragile. Come on gutson
So in world war one the image of the statue was used a lot for drafting to push the idea that
To support. Thank you french. We'll fight in the war with yes to support and secure liberty
For the rest of the world, you know, like come on. Look what we have. Look at this relationship that we've fostered
We need to go and help. Yeah, we need to go and help the war to end all wars, right?
Yeah, so like drafting images
Often had the Statue of Liberty on them
It's a great kind of yeah get some get some emotional symbol. Yeah
I have no complaints with that. I think it's yeah, I don't see it and say let's go to war but you know at the time
Maybe I see her more as like a soft
like a gentle
Like a hug. It doesn't like cannon next to her. Yeah. No, it's not like she's
That reminds me. Have you seen there's like images of like a
Statue of liberty in like a war helmet. No, it's awful. But it was another like promotional thing
It's like oh gosh just no, I haven't seen it. I know what you're trying to do, but
Give her back her crown. It's like, what was it ruby riveter? What was her name?
Oh, um, ru-
Wasn't ruby. No
Rosie. Oh
Rosie the Riveter
Moving on so Statue of Liberty was dedicated as a national monument in
1924 which that took a long time a national you're gonna use it as a depiction of the draft people into a war and it's not gonna be
A national monument. I think that's crazy long application lots of paperwork
It was handed over to the National Park Service in 1933, which is still what it's under today. Nice. They've done good
National Park. Yeah, the rest of bed low island followed suit in 1937. So the entire island is national park land
100 years. Yeah, they immediately began transforming the space into a park and restored some of the areas
Which is good because they were talking about it being just like a dump
rotting wood stairs like only one
Entry way was open for this to get into the statue and it was just like
People talked about how they're surprised people didn't die going inside
Like it was just like muggy and sick smelling like it was just like an awful. Yeah, I mean, there's no funding
What are you supposed to do?
So anyway, it was really good those handed over to the National Park Service because they really didn't
Amazing things to it, especially today. So World War II hit and it was no longer lit at night. So they just stopped
Lighting it because there was like rolling blackouts for the war
And it was only lit twice total during World War World War II on the new year in 1944
Very briefly just like happy new year. Okay
Like take that back down
And the second time was on D-Day when the light flashed dot dot dot dash, which is morse code V for victory
Which is awesome. I mean an awful
Event but super cool lighting scenario. My grandpa was there
Storm the beach and he didn't even want to go
1956 just gonna flow right over that bedlose island was officially renamed to liberty island, which was bartledy's original
Plan was to name it liberty island. So it just took
You know a while
60 70 years. Yeah, they're like, yeah, let's rename it. You might as well as well. Who's bed low?
Anyway, I don't want to pay taxes on this thing
So now i'm going to go into
The restoration hit it. So they planned a centennial celebration in 1986. So 100 years of the statue
Being built they wanted to have a big celebration. So they needed to make sure that it was structurally sound and
See when it'd be fixed on it and holy cow. It needed some serious work
Like yeah, I think it would have been cheaper to build a new statue. Oh
So french and american engineers gave it a evaluation
And this was um, like five years before the celebration
So they planned on having a new one
So in 1982 they finished their evaluation and concluded that it needed considerable restorations
President reagan announced the statue of liberty dash ellis island centennial commission
Which was going to be responsible for funding or you know collecting funds for the project
And they raised 350 million dollars
Wow
I don't know if that's in
That time's money or if that's in today's money, but like still that's insane 350 million. Hopefully today
It's gotta be right. I mean wall street in the 80s was pretty lit
But part of that was because american express card promised one cent of all credit card purchases would go towards the project
And it's still on the american express card
The statue of liberty is
That's cool. Yep, you have one. Yeah, my wife and I are going to be doing that
And it's definitely pretty cool. Yep, you have one. Yeah, my work card my old one now. Oh
I never even noticed that and it's the same color. Yeah, they're probably gonna milk that forever like we did it
the statue was closed in
1984 so we have two years until it's centennial celebration and it was closed that entire time for
construction efforts and restorations and everything and
The reopening would be on fourth of july weekend, which would be called liberty weekend
So let me pull up a picture.
They built the world's largest freestanding scaffolding.
Yeah.
That is terrifying.
If you think about, you're like 250 feet up in the air.
Just.
That's pretty wild.
I think I have a little bit of a fear of heights
because I can't even imagine.
I don't think I can climb the Statue of Liberty.
Everybody fears heights to some degree.
They stand on it, don't they?
Like the scaffolding, the stairs.
Yeah, there's like boards.
I mean, at this point they have like modular,
they're not boards anymore,
but modular metal aluminum pieces that are like platforms.
So you build stairs into it.
I've been on some stair towers and stuff
that are scaffolding, but not 300 feet tall.
I'll be honest, the tallest one I remember
was in a project where it was like 40 feet of stairs,
all made out of scaffolding.
It was kind of.
Sketch.
It was my favorite.
I could do it, but I didn't wanna hang out there.
Okay, because I was like 60 feet up,
but it was see-through grading.
Like you just see down to the earth.
I have never struggled so hard against my own brain
than I did in that moment,
where I genuinely struggled to take a step forward on this.
The ground, like you can see.
This is.
I actually struggled.
We can cut this if you want,
but this was my internship with the Louis Dreyfus Company.
They had these huge, they were seven stories.
So 70 feet in the air at least.
And they're grain silos.
And on top you could go between.
And below you was like where the semi trucks drove.
So, and it was only, I swear it was two and a half feet wide.
It was like two people couldn't walk next to each other.
And it was just a single handrail.
And I just, I like walked across it
maybe 10 times over the summer.
Never once like stopped and looked down.
No.
Because I just knew it was going to be so sketchy.
Oh gosh, yeah.
It was high.
I really thought I was going to faint.
That was like around a distillation column.
So you know those get very, very tall.
Gassy.
I may have been gassy from fear.
So anyway, I just wanted to point out the scaffolding.
It's insane.
Yeah, it's incredible.
So the first phase was using liquid nitrogen
to remove years of paint layers
on the inside of the sculpture.
Okay.
Then blasting baking soda on the walls after that
to remove coal tar, which they used to plug holes
and like any openings in the wall.
I know.
And then, so this is where the asbestos came into play.
Bartholdi had used to prevent corrosion,
which didn't happen.
Didn't work, yeah.
So workers needed to use,
they needed to wear moon suits is what they were called
in order to work inside the statue,
which had its own circulating air supply.
Like, I mean, they didn't know that asbestos
was gonna be such a huge thing, but.
Sounds awful.
Use something that was actually gonna work.
Don't get.
Well, asbestos was fantastic.
Asbestos was an awesome material.
As far as material science goes,
it was like super cheap to make, super well insulating.
You use it in a bunch of different like thicknesses.
So they're always in ceilings, old ceilings.
Ceiling tiles, like pipe insulation
floor tiles, drywall.
It was all over the place.
Cause it was like a miracle
that we discovered how to make asbestos.
I don't know the history,
but I think it was like 20, 30 years
before they knew like, it's killing people.
Yeah.
And it's not even like questionable.
You know how there's like everything
they say causes cancer these days,
but this was like, there is no refuting it that it is.
Mesothelioma.
Wow. I think.
Big word. I don't know.
We'll just go with it.
Yeah. So what'd they do about the asbestos?
Oh, they had to wear moon suits.
Yeah. So yeah, they could, they removed it all, but.
Those guys had to be paid a lot.
I know. I wonder if like people died.
I didn't look up if anybody died on this.
They were uncomfortable, I would say.
Oh, that scaffolding.
Why did they need it all the way over on the right?
It seems like it's so far away from.
I don't know.
So they replaced all the iron armature,
fixed large holes in the copper sheeting,
which was like a total of 2% of the skin
needed to be replaced, which is pretty hefty
when it's 31 tons of copper.
The copper that they used to fill the holes
was taken from the roof of Bell Labs,
which was like a laboratory or something.
Yeah, Bell Labs is famous.
Yeah, it had a similar patina to the statue.
And so they took it from that and in compensation,
they gave them the old pieces of the Statue of Liberty
that they could do like tests on.
That's cool.
Isn't that cool?
Yeah.
I thought that was so neat.
They're just like, can we take your roof?
They're like, yeah.
I've got a business proposition for you.
That's all right.
This is where the torch comes in.
The new one?
Because it was stained glass for no reason at all,
it's been leaking water since he first did it in 1916.
So the whole thing had to be replaced, the entire torch.
So, but they made one from Bartoldi's original design.
So it was exactly the same as it was when it was built.
And they gilded it with 24 karat gold.
I was gonna say, how is it still gold?
Yeah.
As he originally intended so that when it's sunny out,
it reflects off the torch.
So it's really bright.
And then at night they use floodlights on it.
So it's still, it lights up.
That's really cool.
It's really cool.
24 karat gold, just all over that thing.
How does that work?
Look at the carats of gold.
Is it a thickness or a grade?
I don't know.
I'm not really into it.
I feel like the higher quality,
higher karat, the more yellow it is.
So it must be like concentration of gold particles
or gold element in the substance.
Can't tell you.
Sounds right.
Somebody let us know.
But the old torch that has stained glass all over it
is in the museum that's on the island now.
So you can go and see the old ones.
I am really surprised they didn't just knock it down.
So, and it's so ugly. Oh, come on.
I'm like, what is that?
That is not what I pictured.
I had this big- And it's big to crap.
I had this wonderful idea of like a big ball of glass
that would just, you know, just as a light.
Yeah, like illuminate.
No, it wasn't even pretty.
It wasn't an improvement.
It was just-
That looks like a middle school project.
They worked way too long on.
Because they left the copper.
They just cut squares into it
and then put stained glass in the squares.
It's really awful.
That would be a terrible.
What if you were commissioned to do the stained glass
and you're like, oh my God, what an honor.
And then you see the idea and you're like, oh no.
I'm just cutting squares of glass.
Yeah, so obviously I have a picture up next to the new one
and the new one just looks so much better.
It's so clean and really pretty.
I love that gold.
There's the twin towers in the background.
There's the guy crawling over the scaffolding.
He's probably got fall arrest.
Twin towers in the background of both photos.
There are some things that happened
in the Statue of Liberty after 9-11.
There's a lot of pictures of the Statue of Liberty
with the burning buildings in the background.
I just didn't think that was a thing that we had to show.
It's not a, it didn't need to be.
But anyway, to get back to the restoration,
they found out that the right arm
had not been placed correctly
and had been swaying in the wind for almost 100 years.
No way.
Yes.
What do you mean?
And one of the rays of the crown was a few degrees off.
So it touched the arm every time that it swayed in the wind.
No way.
Wore a hole into her torch bearing arm.
No way.
Because they had just built her on,
they put her head on two feet off.
Let me go back.
Can you go back?
To what?
No, a picture.
I wanna see this.
Or forward maybe.
Her head's two feet off.
Yeah, so one of those rays.
To the left.
To the right.
It's just mind blowing that a statue of this stature,
like we've got a literal colossal statue
could be put together incorrectly.
Yep.
I work in construction
and a lot of the guys that work for me
do sheet metal work and I've seen some things.
Metal will bend and you hit it.
Yeah, so it just wore this hole in the arm
and they didn't find out until at this moment.
100 years.
They patched that because the National Park Service
couldn't really afford to replace the whole arm
so they were just like, just patch it.
And then they moved the ray on the crown
so that it was no longer bumping against the arm.
So I have a picture pulled up of them just adjusting it.
Crazy.
So huge and you think about in this photo
how high they are up off the ground.
Like it just looks like, oh, I'm just up here.
Like you're at the top of the Statue of Liberty.
I don't think they have fall arrest systems.
Maybe they don't exist yet.
I don't think so either.
For those who don't know, maybe you care, I don't know.
Construction has come a long way in the last 20 years.
Yeah, especially safety.
Well, in the last 200 years for sure,
but 20 years in safety.
Like there's a lot of construction companies
that won't even allow ladders at all.
Like you cannot have a ladder on the job site
because so many injuries happened
from people falling from ladders.
So and heights, you know, slips, trips and falls.
But that's crazy.
Ooh.
So that was the basics of the restoration efforts
that happened, filled with nervous laughter
because apparently at heights I'm sweating.
I think I have a problem.
So anyway, immediately, so this is what I was talking about.
This is what I'm talking about, 9-11,
which is like this short thing.
But immediately following the events that happened,
the statue was closed for eight years
because they realized they could not evacuate people
out of the Statue of Liberty if something were to happen.
It just kind of like, you know, the awareness boom
of America where they were just like,
oh, if something happens, how are we gonna handle it?
Like it just made it so obvious that we hadn't considered.
If terrible people were to do terrible things.
In the worst case scenario.
Yeah, what would you do?
And the Statue of Liberty was one of those things
where it had one way up and one way down.
It was small, there was an elevator, but like.
It'd be bad.
Yeah.
Also it's a symbol of America.
So it's likely to be attacked.
Right.
Yeah, I'm sure that's what they were thinking.
In those times.
Following 9-11, one of the things that they talked about
in the towers were the stairwells.
It's a whole long thing.
You should go look into it on your own,
but they couldn't evacuate well in the stairwells
and have firefighters help.
And mostly, one of the reasons was they're too narrow.
And they had gotten a special exception
to be built more narrow than code.
Oh wow.
Because of floor space.
Yeah.
I mean over these huge towers.
Long, long story, go read on your own.
I won't bore you.
But the end of it, the city of New York was like,
oh, well we've got to increase our width
of our stairwells for safety.
You've got to be able to have one person go up,
one person go down.
Yeah.
And people will know that's how you go downstairs
when you're evacuating.
And I think it was in litigation for a while
to make a new code standard for buildings.
And the cost impact to those couple of square feet
on every floor on New York land, real estate,
I think it was eventually just dropped.
Oh no.
Maybe if you build a new building,
you have to have a wider stairwell.
Yeah.
I don't know.
There's many other things that happen.
If you build a new, like if anything built is new,
then it has to conform to some standard.
But that's so awful.
But I just thought it was interesting
because it's probably applying to the infrastructure here too.
Yeah.
So that was a huge thing.
But they added new elevators and staircases
and reduced the number of people
that could be inside at one time.
So I think total, you can have 10 people in there
in the statue at a time.
The pedestal is a different, a whole different thing.
But yeah, so like a total of I think 240 people
can be there in a day.
So like in one day, only a total of 240 people
can climb the tower.
Have you ever been to the St. Louis arch?
No.
Arch.
Yeah.
Well, it's the gateway to the West,
I think is what they call it.
But I don't know, I don't remember the history.
But you go up in an elevator that's like,
you sit in it and it's like a ball or a barrel shape.
Ew, no, I don't like that.
I think it fits four people, maybe six.
But it's like, as you go up, the elevator has to correct
because if you were to go up, you'd be like turned sideways.
Yeah.
So it has to like.
Oh, no, no, no.
Oh no.
At the top, I don't know how tall it is,
but I went up there 10 years ago.
You did, okay.
At the top, there's these little windows you can look out
and the whole thing is moving in the wind.
It sways back and forth.
I'd pass out.
I had to build it that way because, you know,
durability versus rigidity.
It's just like the Statue of Liberty
where the outside was all flexible.
It's insane.
Insane. No, no, I know.
It was cool.
A lot of people don't go up.
I would never.
So I've sidetracked you,
but I just think it's so interesting.
I've never been to New York at all.
I'd like to go.
Hey, we went to New York together.
Well, that's true.
I've never been to New York for more than a day.
How rude.
We didn't see the Statue of Liberty though.
No, it was part of my plan,
but the ferry that takes you out there
would have been too long.
So Vince and I had an eight hour layover at JFK Airport.
We had to pick and choose what we were gonna make happen
in that time span.
So it was Times Square and.
Central Park.
Central Park, yeah.
And then we got some pizza.
And pizza.
So it was opened again after, so 2009, it was opened again.
Originally, only about 20% of the island's visitors
were allowed in the museum that was inside the pedestal.
So originally the museum was in the pedestal
and it was like a very exclusive club
that if you wanted to go into the museum,
it's like you either had to be a donor or.
Like going to the Statue of Liberty anyway
was not like a.
Tourist thing.
Yeah, it was like a invitational sort of thing.
Cool.
Which, I mean, you could go,
but I just don't think it was as common as it is today
where people like really flock to go and check it out.
In 2016, they built the new museum,
which is on the island separate from the Statue of Liberty.
I didn't pull up a picture of it,
but they began construction in 2016, finished it in 2019.
Which is so weird, yeah, because it's only five years ago.
So weird to me that they're working
on the Statue of Liberty today.
Yeah.
Like even the ancillary buildings.
Like it's just like another national park
where they're constantly doing work on it.
Just, I'm like, the Statue of Liberty.
The lighthouse.
The lighthouse?
It's one of the worst ones ever.
Dang it.
She's amazing, but she's not a lighthouse.
That's for sure.
Not no more.
It also wasn't until 2017 that the statue was like added
to the National Register of Historic Places.
2017?
That's less than a decade ago.
What?
I don't know.
It was built in 1886.
I just think that's crazy.
National Register of Historic Places.
People just don't like to do paperwork, I'm telling you.
I can't feel like it can't be that hard.
And who else is gonna qualify than the Statue of Liberty?
You know there's a Statue of Liberty
in my hometown, Hayes, Kansas?
No.
About six feet tall, it's right next to the library.
Oh, that's a shame.
There's another one we saw in Las Vegas, Nevada.
I didn't see it.
Statue of Liberty, yes you did.
No, we did not.
We saw the Eiffel Tower.
New York, New York.
Saw the Eiffel Tower.
There's a casino called New York, New York.
We didn't go.
Well, we were there.
Are you kidding me?
We didn't get to see.
There's one in France too.
Really?
I think I knew that somehow.
How did I know that?
Oh, from Nicolas Cage.
Heard it straight from the source.
I feel bad for our listeners,
but this is just what we do nonstop.
Yeah, this is like a normal life.
Just get a window into our lives.
Just sit at a table and just put microphones on it.
Okay, wow.
I'll put a little bit about how you can visit in here
because it's important.
Because one day we'll be visiting.
And I said that I wouldn't be able to climb it, but I will.
Whoa.
I'm gonna make it happen.
So you can only be reached by ferry.
It's $25 for a ferry ticket to get there and back.
But, so what I was saying is that this was pretty nice.
Inclusive.
You only pay 30 cents more for a ticket to get to the crown.
So to climb, it's not an exclusive thing.
We have to pay, twice as much, pay $100 for a ticket
to climb the lighthouse.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah, you know what?
To climb the lighthouse.
Is there a stamp for the lighthouse password?
Yes.
Nice.
There's a stamp for the Statue of Liberty.
Everyone get a passport now, ushs.org.
I don't have mine still.
I gotta go make sure.
You gotta order it.
I realized that I did have to pay for it.
Sorry, I keep interrupting.
So you were saying, 30 cents?
It's only 30 cents more.
But the problem is that it's,
you make a reservation in advance
and it's booked for months in advance.
So you have to know when you're gonna go
and what time you're gonna be there.
And then buy the ferry ticket for that specific time
with the stipulation, 30 cents addition at the bottom
that it's a crown ticket.
Nice.
And you can also,
there's the same thing for the pedestal as well.
So 30 cents extra, you get to go on the pedestal.
But it's 162 steps, so you gotta be ready
to climb it once you get in there.
Yeah, I got a nice photo of what the island looks like.
It's got a beautiful dock.
Yeah, a couple of them.
But isn't the pedestal cool, the star shape?
Yes, it is really cool.
It's always been that way, it's really cool.
I like that idea.
I was looking, is that Ellis Island over there?
Yeah.
And that is our 50th episode,
special edition Statue of Liberty.
Yes, she was a lighthouse.
16 years a lighthouse.
Yeah, 16 solid sucky years.
Not great years.
She gave it the old college try.
Super cool, thank you for doing this.
Yeah, I got really excited.
I love history stuff.
It's a weekend of history.
Oh.
I was recently interviewed by US LHS historian
and podcast host, Jeremy DeTremont.
Yeah.
And it was a great time.
So I posted about it on LinkedIn.
I think that's the only place I posted about it.
Okay.
So just said thank you to him.
But yeah, it was a lot of fun.
We're on an interview, it's like 40 minutes.
And I did not listen to it.
I didn't either.
I'm kind of scared to hear it myself.
I don't wanna hear it myself.
But y'all can go listen to it.
Yeah, it's a.
Lighthearted podcast.
Yeah, lighthearted.
You can go to the US LHS website.
It has under one of their tabs, it says podcast.
And then you can go and listen to it there.
Or it's like on Apple or Google, Spotify, whatever.
Anything else you wanna say?
Nope.
You guys should check out our Instagram.
You can go to our website, thelighthouselowdown.com
where you can leave us a review
if you like this episode, please do.
We love it when we get reviews.
And you can also leave a voicemail,
send us a email at lighthouselowdown.gmail.com.
I said lighthouse, okay.
The lighthouse lowdown.
So that's it.
We hope you enjoyed listening to this
super special episode.
And we'll catch you next time on The Lighthouse Lowdown.
We keep you lasted.