Bloomberg: Let Tourists Scale Liberty’s Heights

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on Monday asked the federal government to completely reopen the Statue of Liberty to visitors, thus sending a message to the world that terrorists can’t win.

“This is a symbol of America,” Bloomberg said. “Let’s stand up and have some guts.... Let’s get it open.”

The statue has been closed to the public for security reasons since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

In a ceremony on Liberty Island last week, Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton announced that starting in July, tourists would be able to enter the statue’s pedestal. Its crown, however, would remain off-limits.

Norton said the Interior Department had spent $19.6 million to tighten security at the monument. Improvements included increased patrols around Liberty Island, new fire systems and the construction of an escape stairway from the pedestal to the ground.

On Monday, Bloomberg said he had done everything he could -- publicly and privately, including writing a personal check for $100,000 -- to make sure that the statue retains its full status as America’s welcoming symbol of opportunity.

If additional security is necessary to achieve that goal, the mayor said, it should be implemented, even if each tourist has to be escorted inside by a police officer.

Bloomberg said he did not agree with the decision to close the statue after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

John Wright, an Interior Department spokesman, said the agency was conducting a series of security reviews to assess “an appropriate level of safety and emergency services” at the monument. “That kind of a process takes time,” Wright said. But he added: “We agree with the mayor.”

Wright also said Monday that the Interior Department’s inspector general was conducting an inquiry into the relationship between the National Park Service, which runs the monument, and the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, a nonprofit fundraising group that helps support it.

Some critics have charged that public access to part of the statue could have happened much faster had the foundation earmarked some of its $30-million endowment toward opening the monument instead of launching a separate fundraising campaign that has collected almost $7 million from corporations.

In a statement, the foundation denied it delayed the project to open the monument, saying architects and engineers began the security design process immediately after an agreement was signed with the National Park Service last summer.

The foundation said most of the necessary money was in hand, and work was beginning on the modifications to ensure greater access and safety. Among the improvements: The stone base of the statue will contain a museum, complete with a replica of Lady Liberty’s head.