Why Tourists Have Been Banned From Seeing Lady Liberty's Original Torch Up Close For Over A Century

The Statue of Liberty might be the most iconic symbol of New York. When you visit its little island in the New York Harbor, you can learn a lot about American history and admire the view of the New York City skyline. When you look at the enormous statue holding her torch aloft as a symbol of enlightenment, you might wonder if you can take in the views from inside of it. Unfortunately, you can't go up into the torch — but over a century ago, you could. Bizarrely, the torch is permanently closed because of the Black Tom explosion of 1916. While this historical event is not particularly widely known today, at the time, it was one of the largest sabotages in American history.

Many are surprised to learn that the torch has been closed for more than 100 years, because they seem to remember climbing up spiral stairs to the torch themselves when they were younger. However, the torch has never had stairs — just a single ladder that takes climbers up into the small space within the torch. The stairs inside the structure only take you as far as the crown, which requires a 10-story climb on one narrow spiral staircase.

On July 30, 1916, a catastrophic explosion occurred in New York City — the worst in the city's history at the time. It wasn't an accident. Explosives were loaded into trains and detonated at the Black Tom railroad yard in what is now Liberty State Park in New Jersey, just across the water from Liberty Island where the statue stands. The force of the blast was so powerful that windows across Manhattan and Jersey City were broken. Tragically, seven people were killed. Although the United States had not yet joined World War I, this was the deliberate act of German operatives, infuriated that the United States was supporting Britain and France in their war against Germany. Much of that industry and production took place in New York and went through Black Tom.

The explosion also damaged the Statue of Liberty, blasting shrapnel at the arm and torch. At that time, the torch was closed to the public. Although restoration has since taken place, the National Park Service has never reopened the torch for tourists to explore. National Park Service employees do periodically climb up to the torch for maintenance, however.

You can see Lady Liberty up close from Liberty Island or from the water (for free on the Staten Island Ferry!), but if you want to see the view from as high up as possible on the statue, you'll have to visit the crown (or, if you have a little more money to spend, take a helicopter tour over New York City) instead. If you book special tickets in advance, you can climb all the way up to the Statue of Liberty's crown, where you can get a good look out at the harbor far below you. You should know, however, that there are no elevators or escalators in the statue. If you want to get there, you're going to have to climb an exhausting 162 steps to the top.

If you really want to see the torch itself up close, you can still visit the original one at the Statue of Liberty Museum. There, you can get a sense of the size of the torch and imagine what it was like for visitors over 100 years ago to look out over the harbor through its windows. And, best of all, you won't even have to climb to do so.