NEW YORK — Three hundred fifty-four narrow steps spiral all the way up to the Statue of Liberty’s crown, and those stairs are the only escape route for tourists in an emergency.
When a smoke alarm tripped inside the statue last month, hundreds of tourists were rushed down the equivalent of about 15 flights of stairs — the same ones firefighters would need to trudge up if the 125-year-old landmark caught fire.
National Park Service officials have closed the statue in recent years for a $20 million security upgrade and kept the crown shut since the Sept. 11 attacks until last year to improve its fire safety. Next year, the statue will close again, for nine months to a year, so workers can build a second stairwell at Lady Liberty’s pedestal, said National Park Service spokesman Darren Boch.
Most tourists, 3,000 maximum per day, ascend the first 186 steps from the ground up to the pedestal. No more than 10 people at a time are allowed all the way up to the crown, in part so they can be quickly evacuated if necessary.
The crown remains extremely popular: No tickets are available until November.
