New York: Liberty Statue and Ellis Island

 Ep.52

3^rd August 2012

“I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list.” – Susan Sontag.

JFK – New York, United States of America.

Under the Lady Liberty

Here we go again, America. After all this time, I thought that I have never explored New York thoroughly since I always go down to Philadelphia. So it happened that I swapped in New York flight to do a New York exploration. In this case, while it was still summer *o how I hate winter now*, I would love to go to visit the most famous woman in America, Lady Liberty. And to my surprise, I found Helen’s, my classmate of Ind 28/11, name in the other flight crew list. I contacted her and asked whether she would love to go together with me to Lady Liberty. We agreed and a trip was set!

got the ticket

I arrived at NY at 9pm already, so the trip was supposed to be the next day. A crew from my flight was interested to join us, and I knew Helen wont mind to add another party to our trip. The more the merrier, right? We met up the next day at the lobby and we are all set to go. From our hotel, which is located at the Time Square, we need to take the famous American subway to Baterry Park and queue to board the ferry to Liberty Island. 

manhattan landscape

As soon as we arrived at the park, we knew where to go already, as there was a long queue and crowd. *Always follow the crowds* We bought our tickets which actually a tour ticket to Liberty Statue and Ellis Island for USD 16 each person, return ferry ticket included along with audio guide. Perfect! Now, we queue. The queue was very looooonggggg… and I consider buying a cheese pretzel for my self while the other two bought ice cream. Yeah, it was hot enough. Queuing for about 1 hour under direct sun made my skin tanned already. I could see my watch formed a tanned line already on my wrist *not a good sign*. We passed through the metal detector and security check and we *finally* board the ferry at about 12 noon. 

arrived

As we got off from the ferry, we picked the audio guide to tour the Statue of Liberty. As I have mentioned before, she is the most famous lady in America. I thought it would be huge and gigantic, but actually, she’s not that big. To put it in a word, she’s sexy *kidding*. Anyone realize that one of her feet is kind of tiptoe-ing? Well, that’s the reality. 

Carin-Me-Helen

The Statue of Liberty is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, designed by Frédéric Bartholdi and dedicated on October 28, 1886. The statue, a gift to the United States from the people of France, is of a robed female figure representing Libertas, the Roman goddess of freedom, who bears a torch and a tabula ansata (a tablet evoking the law) upon which is inscribed the date of the American Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776. A broken chain lies at her feet. The statue is an icon of freedom and of the United States: a welcoming signal to immigrants arriving from abroad, (which will be covered later on the Ellis island visit). 

another one please!

We started the tour from the park, towards the lady liberty where there were ancient American artifacts, such as motorbike, which is very old from the way it looks, some dance group performing modern dance in the park. And since we were approaching the statue from behind *kind of like an ambush*, we also saw the busts of the designer of the statue. As we closed in, we found ourselves welcomed by the landscape of Manhattan from a far. It was like those skylines that are very well known all around the world. And as it was located near the sea, we could also see those birds that speaks “mine!mine!” in Finding Nemo movie *I don’t know what kind of bird that is, but I know they are carnivore birds*. 

damn!she's old.

The statue itself is a masterpiece. I would never think that it would be possible for me to meet this lady from this close when I was a kid. I feel blessed as I could do something like this from time to time now. The landmark of New York was kinda dusty lime green in color and stand on a podium. They do allow us to go up to the observation desk, which is located right at her crown *remember X-men first movie?*, but we didn’t. After we took a great deal amount of good pictures and satisfied, we were ready to go. We should make our way to catch the ferry to the next destination, which is the Ellis Island. 

migrate here?

Next trip to history? Ellis Island. We boarded the ferry from Liberty Island to Ellis Island, of course after returning the audio guide thing to the respective booth. And in about 10-15 minutes, we were there already. We picked up another audio tour guide and we were welcomed by the images of old American immigrants along with their luggage and suitcases. Ellis Island, in Upper New York Bay, was the gateway for millions of immigrants to the United States as the nation's busiest immigrant inspection station from 1892 until 1954. The island was greatly expanded with land reclamation between 1892 and 1934.

i want one

Ellis Island welcomed million immigrants arriving in New York since 1890. It was like a gate way to enter America, the land of freedom. Exhibits include Hearing Room, Peak Immigration Years, the Peopling of America, Restoring a Landmark, Silent Voices, Treasures from Home, and Ellis Island Chronicles. There are also three theaters used for film and live performances. Many of the original artifacts were showcased in the museum. Just as I said, it was like a travel through the past time where you could just feel the atmosphere few hundreds year behind. 

the Great Hall

In the Great Hall, where immigrants were processed, is where all immigrant to be noted and recorded. We could see the book of record *of course* and they do recorded each and every single immigrant tidily. The first immigrant to pass through Ellis Island was Annie Moore, a 13-year-old girl from Ireland, who arrived on the ship Nevada on January 1, 1892. She and her two brothers were coming to America to meet their parents, who had moved to New York two years prior. She received a greeting from officials and a $10 gold piece. It was the largest sum of money she had ever owned. The last person to pass through Ellis Island was a Norwegian merchant seaman by the name of Arne Peterssen in 1954.

got my audio guide on

Finished with the tour at about 4 pm in the afternoon. We reached back Battery Park at about 4.30 pm. Helen and I still got some energy to go for another exploration as for Carin, another crew that joined us, decided to make her way back to the hotel. So, there we go on duo. Helen and I made the American Museum of National History as our last destination before we head back to the hotel. Unfortunately, it was closed on that particular day. So, we just stroll around the vicinity and took few pictures. We did consider to spend some time at the Central Park, but guess the sun will set pretty soon and Helen will have to prepare for her flight pretty soon as she will leave the next morning. 

The American Museum of Natural History

We called it a day and that’s how my New York exploration goes in a day. I wont call it complete yet, but it was a fun one. I just love visiting places with historical value, which is kind of what connect us to the past time. And even though we live in this modern age with some cool gadgets, I do think people from the past, they were really cool to be able to figure how to do this and that with their limited resources. Well, we wont be here if its not for the past. *Sentimental*

accidentally found it.

It’s kind of sad but all that I know now is that this Liberty Statue and Ellis Island has been closed after the Hurricane Sandy hit east coast of America. Hopefully it would be open soon. 

“A visit to a museum is like doing a time travel. Don’t you think so?” –Me.