The Unexpected Dangerous Detail Tourists Don't Realize About The Statue Of Liberty

What can you do when New York is under threat from a ghostly 16th-century Carpathian sorcerer? You need a symbol that will bring the city together against the common foe, which is why Peter Venkman and the gang in "Ghostbusters II" choose the Statue of Liberty to help save the day. While it's unlikely we'll ever see her walking down 5th Avenue like in the movie, the iconic landmark has stood as a beacon of hope, justice, and freedom since she was dedicated in 1886. Yet while the popular tourist attraction has been welcoming visitors from home and abroad for well over a century, there is one potentially dangerous aspect that visitors might not know about: Lightning strikes.

The Statue looks epic and inspiring enough, cradling her tablet with one hand and holding her torch aloft with the other. In April 2024, just two days after New York City was shaken by a 4.8 magnitude earthquake, she looked positively super-heroic when a photographer snapped an image of lightning striking the torch. It looks as if she is blasting a bolt of electric into the cloudy sky, like an act of defiance. The photo was a lucky catch but the strike was not a one-off event — the statue is zapped by up to 600 lightning strikes every year while also enduring high winds and salt spray erosion from the surrounding harbor. But how dangerous is it to be inside the Statue of Liberty when she is struck by lightning?

Designed by sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, the Statue of Liberty was a gift from France to the people of the United States. The details are important to American history: her tablet is etched with the date of the Declaration of Independence, and broken shackles at her feet symbolize the abolition of slavery. Bartholdi enlisted the help of Gustave Eiffel to complete his vision, and there are photos of her towering above the rooftops of Paris before she took her long journey across the Atlantic.

The colossal statue was constructed from copper because the metal is relatively soft and easy to sculpt and its oxidized green coating provides a protective coating against the elements. This would come in handy on a harbor island, although there was a snag: While her outer casing could withstand rain and wind, the interior frame was originally made of iron. Iron rusts and it was necessary to replace certain sections with stainless steel instead.

Yet while copper is great for keeping the weather at bay, it also has the highest conductivity of any metal commonly used in manufacturing. When we're talking about a monument standing 305 feet above open water, the tallest structure in its lonely spot, it is little surprise that it is a magnet for lightning strikes. The good news is that the risk to the public is very low –- she is safely grounded by her huge pedestal of concrete and granite.

When the hotly anticipated music video for Michael Jackson's "Black or White" premiered on November 14, 1991, half a billion people in over 25 countries tuned in. In one scene, the King of Pop is dancing on the Statue of Liberty's torch, perhaps popularizing the idea for so many people that you can get up there and take a (moon) walk around. That was the original intention and there is still a guard rail around the torch, but the statue's torch has been off-limits to the public for over a century. 

In 1916, German saboteurs triggered an explosion at a munitions depot at nearby Black Tom Island with a force larger than the earthquake that shook the city in 2024. Several people died in the incident and the blast scattered shrapnel across the city, with fragments striking the Statue of Liberty. The torch has been closed to the public for safety reasons ever since, even after the original was replaced in 1984, although members of the National Park Service still access it to maintain the floodlights. 

For visitors, however, the highest point in the statue accessible to visitors is the tiny viewing platform in the crown, from where the Ghostbusters boys controlled the supernaturally-animated monument with a Nintendo joystick. Naturally, many visitors want to either admire the view or re-enact the scene from the movie, so you should buy tickets well in advance and prepare for the steep 162-step hike to the top.