Statue of Liberty

What it is

The Statue of Liberty stands on Liberty Island in New York Harbour, a federal site administered by the National Park Service and lying within the territorial jurisdiction of the State of New York, roughly a mile and a half from the southern tip of Manhattan. The National Park Service describes it as a gift of friendship from the people of France, dedicated by President Grover Cleveland on 28 October 1886, designated a National Monument in 1924 and cared for by the Park Service since 1933.

The figure measures 305 feet 1 inch, about 93 metres, from the ground to the tip of the flame, which the Park Service compares to a twenty-two storey building. Its skin is copper about 2.5 millimetres thick, the thickness of two American pennies together, over a frame of cast iron and stainless steel; the green is the patina that formed over roughly thirty years after 1886, when the surface was still penny brown. The statue was set inside the existing star-shaped Fort Wood and faces southeast, towards the arriving ships it was meant to greet.

The torch on the statue today is the second one. The original, its support structure corroded beyond repair, came down in 1984 and is now displayed indoors on the island.

Checked 2026-08-26 · Source

What's inside

Liberty Island holds three separate things a visitor can enter, and they are ticketed differently. The Statue of Liberty Museum, opened in May 2019 near the flag pole, is open to every ferry passenger without a further reservation. Its Immersive Theater runs a ten-minute multimedia piece; the Engagement Gallery covers how Frederic Auguste Bartholdi and his artisans built the figure; the Inspiration Gallery holds the original 1886 torch behind glass walls that look out at the statue and the Manhattan skyline. The museum roof deck is accessible and open to the harbour, and the Park Service warns that it closes in high wind, snow, ice or rain.

The pedestal is the second thing, and it needs a Pedestal ticket. It carries an observation balcony at the top of the granite base and the level from which the interior ironwork is visible. The crown is the third, on a separate and much scarcer ticket.

The grounds themselves are free to walk once you are ashore: the paths around Fort Wood, the harbour views on every side, an information centre desk, food and drink concessions run by Evelyn Hill, and ranger-led talks given first-come, first-served with the day's programme posted at the information centre.

Checked 2026-08-26 · Source

How long to spend

This guide records four hours for the Statue of Liberty, and that figure is editorial judgement rather than a number published by the National Park Service. The Park Service does not print a suggested length for Liberty Island; what it says is that visiting the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island can take most of a day.

Four hours is built from parts that are published. The time printed on a ferry ticket is when you may join the queue for airport-style security, not a departure time, and the Park Service warns that the queue can run an hour or more in summer, at weekends and over winter holidays. Statue City Cruises puts the screening itself at five to ten minutes once you are inside, and says ferries run roughly every twenty minutes. Add the crossing, an hour and a half to two hours ashore for the museum, the grounds and a walk around Fort Wood, and the wait for a boat back.

Ellis Island is included in the same ticket and the same loop, and Statue City Cruises estimates one to two hours there. Treat the two islands together as a full day rather than an afternoon, and take the earliest departure you can if you want both.

Checked 2026-08-26

Season and crowds

The National Park Service records the operational hours of the monument as 08:30 to 18:30 every day of the week, with the last entrance into the statue at 17:00. The Liberty Island information centre desk keeps shorter core hours, 09:30 to 16:30, and the Park Service notes those may change with the season. The islands close on two days a year: Thanksgiving Day and 25 December.

Within those hours the choice that matters most is how early you go. The Park Service recommends an early ferry departure for anyone who wants both islands in one day, and warns that the security queue can take an hour or more during summer, weekends and holidays. Statue City Cruises makes the same point from the other side, telling holders of a 14:00 or later entry time to expect one island rather than two.

Season changes the experience more than the hours. Rangers warn that winter wind off the harbour makes the islands feel far colder than the city, and recommend gloves, a hat and layers; in summer the sun on open ground is strong and water and sun protection matter. The Park Service publishes a dedicated page encouraging off-season visits, which is where the queues are shortest.

Checked 2026-08-26 · Source

Tickets

There is no entrance fee. The National Park Service charges nothing to set foot on Liberty Island or to enter either museum, and the islands are fee-exempt by law, which is why an America the Beautiful pass buys nothing here. What you pay for is the ferry, and the ferry is the only way in.

Statue City Cruises is the sole authorised seller and the only boat permitted to dock at the islands. The Park Service publishes its fares: 26.00 dollars for an adult aged 13 and over, 23.00 dollars for a senior aged 62 and over, 17.00 dollars for a child aged 4 to 12, and nothing for a child under 4. One ticket covers the round trip and both islands, including the Statue of Liberty Museum and the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration. Pedestal and crown access each add 30 cents to that fare, and both must be reserved in advance because the allocation is small; the Park Service says crown tickets are usually taken three to four months ahead. Ranger tours are free and the audio tour is included.

Buy from the operator. The Park Service warns explicitly about unauthorised sellers working near The Battery who overcharge or sell boats that never land.

Checked 2026-08-26 · Source

Getting there

Ferries leave from two places and both are served by public transport, so no car is needed. In Manhattan the departure point is The Battery, at the southern tip of the island; Statue City Cruises directs visitors on the 1 train to South Ferry, or the 4 or 5 to Bowling Green and then into the park. The ticket office is inside Castle Clinton. Note that the security screening and ferry berth moved about 300 yards north along The Battery waterfront in March 2026, so older directions may point at the wrong pier.

The second departure point is Liberty State Park in Jersey City, at 1 Audrey Zapp Drive, reached from exit 14B of the New Jersey Turnpike. This is the side to use if you are driving: the Park Service says parking there is straightforward and priced modestly, and Statue City Cruises quotes 7 dollars per car, while The Battery has no designated parking at all and only private lots along West Street and South Street.

Which side you sail from changes the order of the stops. Boats from New York call at Liberty Island first and Ellis Island second; boats from New Jersey call at Ellis Island first. You may return to either shore, but not back to the one you left once you have disembarked.

Checked 2026-08-26 · Source

What to watch out for

The crown is the part people misjudge. It is 162 stairs in a tight double-helix from the top of the pedestal, with no lift for that stretch, and the Park Service asks that visitors have no heart or respiratory condition, mobility impairment, claustrophobia, acrophobia or vertigo before booking. Children must be at least 42 inches, 1.1 metres, tall and cannot be carried. One ticket per person is allowed in any six-month period, four per order, and time in the crown is capped at ten minutes. The pedestal is the gentler alternative: 215 steps, roughly ten storeys, with a lift for anyone who cannot use them.

Pack for the checkpoints rather than the day. Everything entering the monument passes a second airport-style screening, and bags of any kind, tripods, umbrellas, food and drink other than bottled water, strollers and laptops are all refused; the crown list is stricter still, down to keys and pens. Lockers by the screening building take a 25-cent deposit in quarters.

One published contradiction is worth knowing. The Statue City Cruises help pages say in one answer that the crown is open daily and in another that crown access remains closed pending a later phase; the Park Service pages describe it as open and ticketed. Check availability at the point of booking.

Checked 2026-08-26 · Source

Photography

The statue faces southeast, which settles most photographic decisions. Morning light falls on the face and the front of the robe; by mid-afternoon that side has turned and the figure reads as a silhouette against a bright sky, handsome in its own way but hopeless for detail. An early ferry, recommended anyway for queue reasons, is also the better light.

The strongest frames are rarely taken from directly beneath. Standing at the base gives you a foreshortened underside and the sky behind; walking out along the harbour paths around Fort Wood puts distance between you and the figure and lets the pedestal read as the mass it is. The museum roof deck offers the back of the statue with the Manhattan skyline behind it, which is the one angle that places the monument in its city rather than isolating it.

The crossing itself is the other opportunity. The boat approaches from open water and the scale changes as it closes, so stay on deck rather than sitting inside. Bring the lens you want mounted before you board: bags cannot follow you into the pedestal or the crown, and the crown list allows a phone or a camera but no tripod, so anything you plan to carry upstairs has to be small and hand-held.

Checked 2026-08-26

Where it is

Nearby

External links

• View on Wikidata