Aerial view of Statue of Liberty Photograph courtesy U.S. Coast Guard

In 1886, President Grover Cleveland ordered that the Statue of Liberty be “henceforth maintained, lighted and tended in accordance with such rules and regulations as now exist” under the Lighthouse Board. The statue stood on twelve-acre Bedloe Island, which was divided into three jurisdictions. The War Department controlled the eastern part of the island, and had police powers over the statue. The Lighthouse Board controlled three acres at the northwestern corner of the island and had jurisdiction over the statue as a navigational aid. The American Statue Committee looked after the actual statue itself and the grounds around it, and provided ferry service for visitors.

As the monument was readied for its public opening, a lighting apparatus had yet to be installed in the torch – it remains unclear whether Frederic Bartholdi, the statue’s French-born designer, had ever outlined any specific plan for how the statue would be illuminated. Electric lights, then a fairly new invention, were the popular choice. The Chief Engineer for the statue project, although not an electrician himself, advocated placing electric lights around the statue’s feet, aiming upwards to flood the statue with light at night – an innovative concept at the time. He also proposed lights in the torch shining straight up into the clouds.

The official opening of the Statue of Liberty was marked with great fireworks displays, but the equally anticipated debut of the statue’s electric lighting turned out to be an anticlimax, marked with weeks of false starts, confusion, and grappling with the new technology. The first time the lights in the torch were turned on, their angle was miscalculated, and instead of majestically bathing the statue in light, they cast a shadow that left the statue’s head and shoulders in the dark.

All through the ongoing lighting crisis, the New York World gave a daily, blow-by-blow account of the problems, sparing no one’s feelings in the process. Finally, a system using arc lights powered by a dynamo was designed by James J. Wood of the American Electric Manufacturing Company. The system was widely praised for its simplicity and effectiveness. Wood’s company had donated the dynamo and other lighting equipment to the statue as a patriotic gesture, since Congress had so far failed to approve any funding for the lights. They had only agreed to operate and maintain the lights for one week after the official opening.

Statue of Liberty in 1894 Photograph courtesy Library of Congress

When the week was up, frantic government officials pleaded for the lights to be left on for one more night so that Frederic Bartholdi, designer of the Statue of Liberty, could view the lighting. The sculptor was impressed and reacted favorably. The next day, November 7, the statue went dark for two weeks. The World reported, “The torch of the Goddess of Liberty is suffering from an attack of red tape.” The Lighthouse Board worked behind the scenes to secure emergency funding and crew, and finally President Cleveland gave the executive order that gave the Board the authority it needed to continue the lighting.

The Statue of Liberty became operational as a lighthouse on November 22, 1886. The American Electric Manufacturing Company maintained the light for a short time, but shortly after Christmas, Albert E. Littlefield was named the station’s keeper. Because he had specialized knowledge of electricity, Littlefield received an annual salary of $1,000, which was several hundred dollars more than most lighthouse keepers got at the time. Littlefield, his family, and his assistant keepers and their families all lived in a three-story post hospital on the northwest corner of the island. The Statue of Liberty’s torch, 305 feet above sea level, contained nine electric arc lamps that could be seen 24 miles out to sea.

The Lighthouse Board was apparently not especially pleased with the assignment – but not because of the statue’s imposing size; the engineering challenges of building lighthouses in inaccessible places that could withstand the worst of the elements was routine to the lighthouse establishment. The problem was that they never considered the Statue of Liberty to be important as a navigational aid. As of 1889, it wasn’t even listed as one of New York’s harbor lights. Maintenance costs for the beacon were about $10,000 a year, and came out of the Board’s lighthouse budget. Congress was solicited for special funding for the statue, but to no avail.

As late as 1901, even though the statue had been open to the public for fifteen years, visitor approaches were incomplete and three of the four entrances to the statue were boarded up. The one serviceable entrance was an unpainted wooden stairway, and the steps leading to the crown were lit dimly by kerosene lanterns. The only toilet for visitors on the entire grounds was a single, small shed that hung over the seawall. A cistern on the grounds caved in, leaving a hazardous hole. Post Commander A.C. Taylor wrote: “When it is remembered that hundreds of visitors, climb these dark narrow stairs daily and breathe the suffocating, nauseating air, it is remarkable that so few casualties occur – it is strange that so many people risk their lives by climbing to its head.”

In late 1901, the War Department asked the Lighthouse Board to release its jurisdiction over the statue, which it gladly did. On March 1, 1902, the Statue of Liberty was discontinued as an aid to navigation. The War Department kept authority over the statue until 1932, when the National Park Service assumed control and over the years transformed the statue into the well-run tourist attraction that it is today.

References

1. Northeast Lights: Lighthouses and Lightships, Rhode Island to Cape May, New Jersey, Robert Bachand, 1989.
2. "Liberty Enlightening the World Part I," Carole L. Perrault, The Keeper’s Log, Spring 1986.
3. "Liberty Enlightening the World Part II," Carole L. Perrault, The Keeper’s Log, Summer 1986.