Posted on 10/13/2013 7:53:54 AM PDT by tobyhill
The Statue of Liberty reopened to the public Sunday after the state agreed to shoulder the costs of running the site during the federal government shutdown.
Ferry trips from Manhattan to the Statue of Liberty resumed at 9 a.m., and eager visitors were already lining up.
Esther Athanase, a 26-year-old au pair from Le Havre, France, was using a ticket she'd booked months ago with a friend. "We have to do this,'' she said. "It's an American symbol. And it was a gift from France.''
Ahmed Albin-Hamad, 24, a Saudi Arabian student at Drexel University in Pennsylvania, said he came to Battery Park to get a view of the statue.
"I assumed it was closed, but at least I could see it,'' he said. He was surprised and excited when he found out the statue had reopened.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Friday that the state would pay about $61,600 a day to reopen Liberty Island National Park through Oct. 17. If the shutdown is not resolved by then, officials said, they will renegotiate to keep it open.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnewyork.com ...
Taking an unannounced sabbatical from Drexel to figure out how to blow the damned thing up.
Ahem...........That comes to $22,000,000 per year. Any accounting folks out there willing to go over those books?
I just got back from NYC and once again missed visiting the Statue. I did go to the 9-11 memorial and it was a waste of time.
My idea of a proper 9-11 Memorial is Mecca being a pile of slag.
My first thought too.
Ditto that. Of all the Americans wanting to visit a shrine to our freedom, they have to go find a Saudi student? He’s probably unhappy he wasn’t old enough to be one of the 19 back in ‘01.
Obama is doing his best to shut down America’s Liberty, not just it’s statue.
Bump!
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