It’s perhaps an unavoidable result of the vigilance against terrorism, but a sad one nonetheless. The new tour stops short of the hem of Liberty’s robes, at the top of her thick concrete pedestal, in a room that holds only 30 people at a time, or about 3,000 people a day who are quickly shuffled in and out. While a guide gives a short talk and shows a video, tourists are invited to look up at the ceiling, where a few glass panels give a glimpse of a few feet of the interior. Tourists can also step into the open air on a deck that lines the pedestal. That’s as good as it gets. And that’s only after each visitor is screened twice, by X-ray and metal detectors before boarding a ferry to the monument, and then on the premises by new scanners looking for explosives and narcotics. Throughout the statue’s base are monitors showing the routes to the nearest exits in case of an emergency, while across the bottom scrolls a constant message: “If you see something, say something.” Oddly enough, this antiterrorism mantra, which appears in bilingual postings in city subways and buses, is only in English at this symbol of America’s polyglot immigration.

–Carolyn Curiel

[via This entry was posted in Social Science on Wednesday, August 4, 2004 by Kathryn.