Miss Liberty by night: park service begins evening Liberty Island cruise

Enjoy an evening Liberty Island cruise this summer.

This summer, the National Park Service (NPS) will offer Liberty Island cruise service in the evening, giving visitors a sunset-themed perspective on Miss Liberty.

Each "Date with Miss Liberty" Liberty Island cruise will ferry passengers to the Statue of Liberty at dusk and include dinner provided by the concession stands on the island. The statue will be closed, but guests may wander the grounds, take photos and absorb the historical significance of Miss Liberty.

The people of France gave the "Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World" to the people of the United States on October 28, 1886 to commemorate the two countries' enduring friendship, first established during the Revolutionary War. A joint effort beginning in 1876, France built the statue while the US constructed the star-shaped pedestal on Bedloe's Island in New York harbor. French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bertholdi designed the colossal cooper-sheathed statue around engineer Alexander Gustav Eiffel's interior supports.

Financing proved to be a hurdle. On both sides of the Atlantic, statue committees held galas, concerts, dinners and subscription drives to hustle funds. Portions of the statue were displayed in public -- Miss Liberty's head in a Paris park; the torch in New York's Madison Square Park -- to drum up support. New York World publisher Joseph Pulitzer used his editorial page to chide New York's wealthiest yet stingy citizens, and he raised $50,000 in two months.

Even as Miss Liberty, disassembled and packed in more than 200 crates, made its way to New York on the French ship Isere, workers scrambled to complete the pedestal on time.

Nevertheless, the statue's unveiling on the misty October afternoon earned dozens of column inches in the New York Times, with every city official in attendance and President Grover Cleveland presiding over the dedication ceremony.

Even back then, the Statue of Liberty souvenir trade was brisk. "The souvenir youths did a big business. Photographs of the statue, represented as being in the middle of a roaring whirlpool compared to which Niagara would fall into insignificance, sold like hot cakes," reported the Times. "The badges and medals were also greatly in demand, and not a few of the people were seen returning to their boats with boxes containing very substantial souvenirs. [...] The refreshments pavilion...attracted the attention of the crowd, who invaded it in swarms and purchased sandwiches which tasted as though they had been made from slices of the pedestal."

Fortunately, food quality has improved since 1886. NPS, which manages the Statue of Liberty National Park and nine other national sites in New York harbor, tested the Liberty Island cruise schedule last September. All 1,600 tickets -- 800 seats on two ferries operated by Statue Cruises -- sold out.

This year, cruises take place on eight Thursday evenings between mid-June and mid-August and depart from Battery Park in lower Manhattan or Liberty State Park in New Jersey. Tickets are $35 for adults and $15 for children, which include the cost of dinner on the island. Guests can also pack their own picnic. Each evening's attendance is limited to 1,200 people, so reservations for the Liberty Island cruise are strongly recommended.