Lady Liberty is back in business!
The Statue of Liberty reopened on Sunday after the state agreed to eat the cost of running the statue during the government shutdown — much to the delight of tourists, who said the Big Apple isn’t the same without a trip to the iconic landmark.
Excited tourists cheered the reopening — after a 10-day-long closure – in Battery Park as they awaited boats to take them across New York Harbor.
“It’s so patriotic… and it opened the day we got here, so yay!” said Heidi Jonsson, 40, who was visiting from Georgia.
Another visitor, Joleen Gorgen, 64, of Iowa described hearing news the statue would reopen while riding on a tour bus.
“We were on the bus and everybody just whooped and hollered. That was the big thing,” Gorgen said.
“We’re so appreciative to the state of New York … I think we’ve stopped everybody on the island to thank them for doing this,” she said.
Gov. Cuomo was on hand and said it’s crucial for New York’s economy to have Lady Liberty up and running.
“The economic damage done by closing the Statue of Liberty is profound — you have thousands of vendors who rely on it,” Coumo said.
“You have to remember the Statue of Liberty is one of the main tourist destinations… [it’s] a very big draw,” he said.
He added, “It’s more than just a creator of economics and a creator of jobs. It is probably the most profound symbol for freedom and democracy, certainly in this country, but possibly around the world.”
Coumo announced on Friday the state will pay about $61,600 a day to reopen Liberty Island National Park after it had been shuttered since Oct. 1.
The state will eat the cost through Oct. 17 and Cuomo hopes the budget impasse will be resolved by then.
New York has 33 sites under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service, and they have been shut since Oct. 1 during the partial federal government shutdown. The sites include the statue and nearby Ellis Island, which remains closed for repairs since Superstorm Sandy last year.
Nearly 4 million people visited Lady Liberty in 2011, generating $174 million in economic activity, the park service said.
Governors in several other states have asked for authority to reopen parks within their borders, citing economic losses from closures. Arizona reopened the Grand Canyon on Saturday. Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota and Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado also reopened along with several parks in Utah, according to the parks service website.