September 27, 2022
After a stressful drive of only about 56 miles, we ARRIVED in Jersey City, NJ at Liberty Harbor RV Park which is just across the water from NYC! Make sure if you come here in a large RV that you follow “All trucks – Use UPPER LEVEL”! We met someone after we parked who used GPS directions on their phone. They ended up on the lower level. A policeman had to help them get them turned around. Yikes! Sure glad we didn’t have that experience! SO EXCITED to be here!!
Liberty Harbor RV Park is the BEST place to stay in an RV if you want to get into NYC without hassle! Liberty Harbor RV Park is part of Liberty Harbor Marina. It is basically a pricey, large parking lot, but with full hookups. There are no amenities, but who needs those when you’re visiting NYC!?! It worked out great since we were only at the motorhome long enough to sleep. Location was key for us, and this park was very convenient to explore Liberty Park, get to the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and the NYC/Jersey City subway system. We used the subway/PATHS system so we didn’t need our Jeep at all while we were here. Below are a couple of Barry’s drone shots. He was careful not to send it up too high, and was quick to just get a little aerial view from the RV park . The first one shows the RV park.
We were under the impression that we would be able to see the Statue of Liberty from the RV park, but you can’t.
Below is a great shot that shows the places we explored today and the proximity everything was to the RV park (which is just behind and down from the drone’s lens).
We got on our bikes and set off to explore Liberty Park.
As we approached the Hudson River we discovered New Jersey’s official 9-11 memorial “Empty Sky” commemorating the New Jersey residents who perished during the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in 2001. The memorial was named after a Bruce Springsteen song about 9/11.
The two rectangular 30-foot walls represent the World Trade Center towers one and two that were destroyed on 9-11-2001 by terrorists. Each wall was angled to the visual location of the two towers in Manhattan. The towers had been very prominent in the Manhattan skyline. The very large span of the reflective surface creates a constantly changing play of light between the walls.
The names of the 749 9/11 victims from New Jersey are all engraved in the steel in 4-inch-tall letters at the perfect height to see each one. Two pieces of structural steel that were taken from the World Trade Center site are positioned against each other as you approach the memorial. Memorials typically don’t have a direct touch of reality like this. I thought this memorial was beautifully done.
Reclining Liberty: On display from May 18, 2022 – April 24, 2023
Wow! Glad we got to see her, touch her, and climb on her. The purpose was for viewers to personally interact with her like this.
We checked out a huge, old train station! It was The Central RailRoad of New Jersey (CRRNJ) Terminal. This was so cool.
New immigrants to America were taken directly to Ellis Island to be processed and then declared “clearly and beyond a doubt, entitled to land.” Close to two thirds of the new immigrants then purchased train tickets at the ticket office on Ellis Island, and were transported to this CRRNJ terminal by a ferry. They waited in the Emigrant Waiting Room (shown below) for their trains. The waiting area used to be enclosed within a ferry house. It was a small, confined space that kept the immigrants away from the terminal’s daily commuters, and the splendor of the main waiting room.
When it was time for their trains to depart, the immigrants, many with their tickets pinned to their outer clothing, were led to Track 1 through the North Baggage Tunnel (the arched opening opposite the Emigrant Waiting Rm). These special immigrant trains were described as “somewhat resembling cattle cars”, and took these new Americans on the next leg of their historic journey.
Luckily, we discovered that this train station is where we could buy a ferry ticket to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. Time was getting tight, but we could do it. We quickly purchased two tickets, locked up our bikes, and got on the ferry that was just coming in.
The ferry stopped first at Ellis Island. We wanted to get off to explore, but we knew we didn’t have time to explore both Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, so we just took pictures from the boat.
Liberty Island
New immigrants must have been overwhelmed with emotion when they entered New York Harbor and saw Lady Liberty welcoming them to America!
The magnitude of presence the Statue of Liberty has as I walked around to the front of her was overwhelming. She was larger than I expected. SO glad we got to come here today!
The pedestal on which the Statue of Liberty stands is actually housed within the 11-pointed star-shaped granite fort that was Fort Wood. Fort Wood was built between 1808 and 1811. Currently they are working on rehabilitating the 23 walls of the fort.
Liberty Island has not always been the name of the island. Nor has it been exclusive to Fort Wood and Lady Liberty.
World Trade Center 9/11 Memorial Grove
The Statue of Liberty Museum
There is a headset you can pick up for a guided auditory tour of the museum, but we did without it due to the time constraint. There are two sets of stairs that lead up to a wonderful viewing area. This entire area behind the Statue of Liberty was unexpected.
Liberty Enlightening the World – the official title!
The French Sculptor – Frederic Auguste Bartholdi
From 1870-1875, Bartholdi worked on the statue’s form. He developed his final design through small working models like this. The first set of three (reproductions) were for a proposed project on the Suez. It never came to fruition but were the initial inspiration for his Statue of LIberty. The Statue of Liberty in the foreground of the second picture is the original four-foot working model! The close up of the feet allows you to see the broken chains under her feet.
The proportions and design were tested first from the 4-ft model to one that was 9 ft, then a 36-ft model before going to the full 151 feet. Creating such a colossal figure took thousands of precise measurement for each area/section, and incredible ingenuity.
It’s not like they were constructing Lady Liberty on sight. I found the entire process amazing. Below, I will give a few snapshots of some of what was involved.
The carpenters built wooden molds over the plaster molds. The molds were then removed, thin copper sheeting was softened with heat, and draped over the wooden mold. Large, heavy wooden mallets were used to get the copper to become the skin of that section. There were 300 sections that were made, and Bartholdi inspected and approved each one.
Unfortunately, with time the wrought iron started to decay. From 1937-1941, metalworkers repaired or replaced sections of these bars, but by the 1980s the bars were so swollen from rust due to the corrosive reaction between the iron and the copper, that cracks and holes were appearing in the thin copper skin. During the 1986 restoration, American steelworkers replaced most of the iron with stainless steel. It was a slow process because no more than four old bars could be removed at a time from any one location! The stainless steel bars run flush along the interior.
The PEDESTAL
Even the pedestal for the Statue of Liberty took major planning and designing. Richard Morris Hunt. a renown American architect, was commissioned to design the pedestal. It needed to be large enough to support the size and weight of the statue, but not detract from it or the views to it. Most people don’t give the base or pedestal much thought when looking at this statue or any statue for that matter.
Hunt thought the existing Fort Wood and its 11-pointed star- shape made a magnificent base for the pedestal. This also allowed for the pedestal itself to be shorter. To provide stability for the 89 foot pedestal, General Charles P. Stop, a former US Army engineer, designed a concrete core that extended below and behind the pedestal’s granite face. The 27,000-ton concrete core of the pedestal and the foundation below it was the largest solid mass of poured concrete above ground in the world. Hunt and Stone together created a remarkable architectural achievement that still exists in harmony today with the monument it supports.
Ironically, the granite quarry employed 600 immigrant stonecutters. A limited number of visitors can get tickets to explore the base and pedestal area, and climb to an observation deck in the upper part of the pedestal. We were not able to do this since there were no more tickets available today.
The following is so true!
“Liberty Enlightening the World” is a female image statue that represented freedom/liberty to all in the United States, and those choosing to come here. Yet this was seen as a farce to women and African-Americans living here at the time. I thought significant progress was being made every decade and century as various injustices came to light. Unfortunately, the last ten years have been utterly disgraceful as rich white men use financial and political power to manipulate others to regain total domination over everyone. Women and minorities, along with anyone who doesn’t support the white supremacy agenda are being silenced in multiple ways. Who do we really want to be as a nation?
Because of the global recognition the Statue of Liberty has, her image has been adapted to alert others of current injustices and issues. Below are a few:
THE TORCH
The torch was altered many times.
The 1916 alteration caused so much corrosion that the torch deterioration required a total replacement. It is this original torch that is on display in the museum.
Thankfully, they returned to Bartholdi’s original design! It is what remains today. I think it is beautifully striking in contrast to the rest of the statue. The flame is simple, yet elegant and absolutely gorgeous especially when the sun shines on it. No wonder that was what Bartholdi wanted. It is stunning.
I know I’m an emotional person, but I don’t see how anyone could come here in person and not be moved.
We didn’t make it into the gift shop before it closed. As Liberty Island prepared to close for the day, people were herded/funneled to the waiting area at the ferry dock to be present and ready to board the last ferry back to Jersey City or the last ferry back to NYC.
Barry and I thoroughly enjoyed today. It was the perfect way to begin our visit to New York City. Pictures don’t do it justice! It was incredible. Lady Liberty was considerably bigger than I expected. We did not get to explore the base for the statue and go up to the pedestal viewing area since the tickets for the day were already gone. (There currently is still no viewing from the crown.)
It was an amazing first day in the NYC area!! Looking forward to tomorrow.