h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: The Statue of Liberty, New York City, New York, USA - A2611559
Author: Jodan - Incredibly Uncredible - U201497

I'm working on it, but I want to get it as close to perfect as I can before it heads off to Update Forum.

Thoughts?

Overall, I like this entry, but I have a few minor suggestions.

"People can go up the stairs or the elevator to the torch, where they can see all of the harbour. This is free, when access is available." There are stairs and an elevator leading to the observation area that looks out from the crown. I'm not sure about an elevator to the torch. I think it's accessible only by stairs. In any event, my recollection is that the torch was permanently closed to visitors decades ago. I think that people could at one time walk out onto the circular deck at the base of the flame, but it was decided that the extremely windy conditions made this too hazardous. This closing long predated the post-9/11 closing of the entire statue. (This is based on my fading recollection of my visit to the statue as a kid in the 1960s. The NPS site to which you link states, "Visitors climb 354 steps to reach the crown or 192 steps in order to reach the top of the pedestal." Note the omission of information about reaching the torch, reinforcing my view that this option is obsolete.)

"However, when Ellis Island Immigration Center on nearby Ellis Island, the original meaning of the statue was lost to history." The subordinate clause lacks a verb. Did you mean to insert the word "opened" after "Center"?

"The poem contains its own tensions. ... for many of the native population the shackles of slavery had not been broken." This is confusing as to the timing. The abolition of slavery in the United States was completed with the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 1865. As the entry notes, Bartholdi didn't even begin work on the statue until 1875, and the sonnet of course was written several years after that. If the phrase "the shackles of slavery" is meant to refer to the economic and social impacts on slaves and their descendants, rather than their legal status, then of course it's true, but that distinction isn't clear, especially since the next sentence refers to Whitman's work as an abolitionist (generally understood to refer to the end of slavery as a legal institution). I suggest deleting the sentence about Whitman (or perhaps using it as the beginning of a new entry, since Whitman appears not to be covered) and changing the other sentence to read: "For many of them the streets were certainly not paved with gold, and many of the native population were still severely oppressed despite their recent liberation from slavery."

Hi Sorry I haven't got time for any in-depth reply to yours, but I'll tell you what I'll do-

1- Yes, access to the torch is definitely closed. I think I meant to write the crown I'm not sure. It'll get fixed.
2- Ok, I'll fix it.
3- No, I'm not changing that.