The Statue of Liberty has a new museum – and a podcast

Since making her American debut in 1886, the Statue of Liberty has become one of the world’s most famous attractions.

And, as of this week, she has something new to show off: The Statue of Liberty Museum opens to the public on Thursday, May 16.

Some five years in the making, the new museum – which, like Liberty Island and neighboring Ellis Island, is managed by the National Park Service – provides a multisensory experience for the millions of people who visit every year during trips to New York.

Now, visitors who aren’t able to nab a ticket to the statue’s crown – or who feel a little more comfortable staying on solid ground – will still have other options on the island for learning about history.

Visitors to the Statue board the ferry in Battery Park in lower Manhattan after going through security screening.

In the past, they would disembark on Liberty Island and head straight to the statue’s pedestal for orientation, but now they will be able to go straight to the museum, alleviating some of the congestion in the pedestal.

About 4.3 million people visited the Statue of Liberty in 2018. Tickets – which can combine Liberty Island and Ellis Island – begin at $9 for children and $13.50 for adults, with ferry rides and park ranger-led tours included. To visit the crown, visitors should make reservations in advance.

Interactive exhibits

Guests arriving at the new museum begin by walking through a three-part video chronicling the history of the Statue’s creation before spilling out into a larger open space.

Starting with the end of the United States Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation that formally ended slavery, the video details how those events inspired French artist Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi to create the Statue and finishes with what the Statue has come to signify both in the US and around the world.

In 2018, the original 3,600-pound Statue of Liberty torch was moved from the statue's pedestal to the new museum by truck.

From there, guests can visit a model of Bartholdi’s Paris studio, see the Statue’s original torch (which had been in storage since the 1980s), reach out and touch a copper model of the Statue’s face and play with an interactive exhibit that asks visitors to take photos of themselves and share what liberty means to them in today’s world.

Manhattan-based firm ESI Design took on the project of imagining the museum’s interiors and exhibits.

“We tried to figure out an experience that was complementary, focused and relatively short – because of the size of the crowds,” Ed Schlossberg, president and principal designer of ESI, tells CNN Travel.

The museum reflects a changing New York City – not just demographically but geographically.

“This building is way up because of the flooding from Hurricane Sandy,” Schlossberg explains, referring to the superstorm that hit the city in 2012. “It’s ten feet above the 500-year floodplain.”

Following Sandy’s devastation, city officials in New York worked to determine parts of the city that were at risk for future flood damage and created an open-source map for builders and residents. Their glossary defines the 500-year floodplain as “the area with a 0.2% chance of flooding in any given year.”

The museum is part of a $100 million upgrade project.

Virtual visits

For those unable to make the trip to New York, The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation is launching a free iOS app that uses augmented reality to give people around the world a way to learn about and engage with Lady Liberty.

The app lets users see a time-lapse view from the Statue’s eyes, take a peek inside the structure, access archived photos and see how its color changed over time.

But its flagship feature is the 3-D model of the Statue of Liberty, which was created by taking a series of high-resolution photos from a helicopter circling the landmark.

The app’s three developers also used architectural drawings and referenced photos from the Library of Congress to match the patina, or the green film on its surface produced by oxidation over time, to the year.

A piece from the museum's inaugural exhibit shows a copy of Emma Lazarus' poem "The New Colossus," which is etched in bronze.

The app’s concept is the brainchild of foundation board member and fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg, a Belgian immigrant who is known as “Godmother” of the Statue of Liberty. She connected the foundation with Apple CEO Tim Cook.

“He had never been [to the Statue of Liberty], so he came to see it and he was overwhelmed,” von Furstenberg told a group of reporters ahead of the app’s launch.

“I said I’d love for people to go to the Statue of Liberty and have an Apple experience … and [the Foundation] made an incredible app and podcast,” she said. “The app is incredibly advanced technologically because they use AR.”

The app’s name is simply the Statue of Liberty app, while the podcast is called Raising the Torch.

Von Furstenberg hosts Raising the Torch, with episodes featuring different historians who discuss aspects of the Statue’s past and place it in a historical context.

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Liquid City: A New York City waterfront tour

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At the site

When it comes to the physical museum, however, accessibility is the name of the game.

The kiosks where visitors input their ideas about liberty were placed at an optimum level for wheelchair users, and there are wide turning radiuses throughout the space to make it easy for visitors with various levels of mobility to get around.

In addition, custom headsets with audio narration for videos and interactive exhibit components are available for blind visitors, and deaf and hard-of-hearing guests can use hand-held devices to watch an ASL tour as they explore the museum.

Statue of Liberty: NYC has five boroughs and about a dozen islands. Lady Liberty stands on her own island.

Prospect Park: Brooklyn's biggest park was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, who are also responsible for Central Park.

Bronx Brewery: You can have a beer and do some yoga in this South Bronx brewery.

Coney Island: The iconic amusement park is home to the Wonder Wheel and wooden roller coaster The Cyclone.

Ellis Island: Many Americans can trace their lineage through this island, which has a museum and archives on-site.

Unisphere: A remnant of the World's Fair, this giant silver statue of a globe is also a popular selfie backdrop in Queens' Flushing-Corona Park.

New York Botanical Garden: Up in the Bronx, this botanical garden also has glass houses that will take you to tropical weather even in coldest winter.

Juliana's Pizza: Many pizzerias in Brooklyn claim to be the city's best, but Juliana's makes a particularly convincing claim.

Staten Island Ferry: For the best views of the Statue of Liberty, get a spot on the top right deck when departing from Lower Manhattan.

Yankee Stadium: See where Joe DiMaggio and Derek Jeter became baseball legends in the Bronx.

Brooklyn Bridge: The no-cars-allowed bridge between Brooklyn and Manhattan was completed in 1883.

Snug Harbor: Staten Island is home to America's oldest Chinese garden.

Joe's Shanghai: Order pork-and-crab soup dumplings at this beloved Flushing eatery in Queens.

Rockaway Beach: The Ramones sang about it, and now surfers love this Queens beach as well.

PS1 MoMA: The cooler, edgier kid sister of Manhattan's Museum of Modern Art is just across the river in Long Island City, Queens.

September 11th Memorial: Remember the lives lost on New York's darkest day at this Staten Island public artwork.

City Island: This island just off the Bronx is tough to get to, but your reward is fried seafood and slushy cocktails.

Wave Hill: Get riverside serenity in the Bronx at Wave Hill, an outdoor garden and green space that also hosts events.

Roosevelt Island Tram: New Yorkers can commute by subway, bus, ferry... or over-river tram.

Governor's Island: This may be the best place to stop and relax in the entire city.

What to do in New York City beyond Manhattan

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Judy Giuriceo is the curator of exhibits and media for Statue of Liberty National Monument and Ellis Island.

“This museum is going to be perhaps our most accessible yet,” she tells CNN Travel. “We’re going to have to bring the others up to this level.”

Along with being the unofficial symbol of New York City, the Statue of Liberty is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Her full name is Liberty Enlightening the World.