On July 30, 1916, during World War I, German saboteurs set off an explosion on the Black Tom peninsula in Jersey City, New Jersey, in what is now part of Liberty State Park, close to Bedloe's Island. Carloads of dynamite and other explosives were detonated, and the statue sustained minor damage, mostly to the torch-bearing right arm. The cost to repair the statue and buildings on the island was about $100,000 (equivalent to about $2,350,000 in 2019). As a result, the narrow ascent to the torch was closed for public-safety and has remained closed ever since.
The original torch was removed and replaced in 1986 with the current one, whose flame is covered in 24-karat gold. The torch reflects the Sun's rays in daytime and is lighted by floodlights at night.
The half-million pound copper and steel structure reportedly gets struck by lightning over 600 times per year.
The statue's most famous cinematic appearance was in the 1968 film Planet of the Apes, in which Lady Liberty is one of the few surviving icons of pre-Apocalyptic human society. Over the course of centuries however, dramatic geological shifts left her half-buried in the sand.
In Military Comics #1 (1941), Joan Dale, a courageous reporter, has a dream in which the Statue of Liberty gives her the power to transmute elements and instructs her to battle evil. Joan awakes to find that she now has these powers, adopts a patriotically-themed costume, and begins fighting crime as Miss America.
"The New Colossus" is a sonnet by American poet Emma Lazarus (1849-1887). She wrote the poem in 1883 to raise money for the construction of a pedestal for the Statue of Liberty. In 1903, the poem was cast onto a bronze plaque and mounted inside the pedestal's lower level.
Approximately 4.25 million people visit the Statue of Liberty every year.
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