Trips to Statue of Liberty's crown to be allowed again starting July 4

NEW YORK — The Statue of Liberty's crown, with its exhilarating view of New York's skyscrapers, bridges and seaport, is reopening on Independence Day for the first time since terrorists leveled the World Trade Center just across the harbor.

Safety and security issues have been addressed and 50,000 people, 10 at a time, will get to visit the 265-foot-high crown in the next two years before it is closed again for renovation, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Friday.

"On July 4, we are giving America a special gift," Salazar said at a news conference on nearby Ellis Island. "For the first time in nearly eight years we will once again be able to have one of the most awesome experiences in the world."

Interior Department officials said they had not yet determined how to choose who climbs to the top. Spokeswoman Kendra Barkoff said a lottery is one possibility. Salazar "wants the tickets to be distributed not based on your connections but in a fair and equitable way," she said.

The statue was closed to the public because of security concerns after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The base, pedestal and outdoor observation deck were reopened in 2004 but the crown remained off-limits.

Tourists can now climb to the top of the statue's pedestal and a lower observation area. Starting July 4, they'll be able to mount the 168 steps leading to the crown and its 25 windows.

Some of the windows offer a view of the Manhattan skyline, no longer punctuated by the 110-story twin towers of the World Trade Center.

The Park Service had said in the past that the narrow, double-helix spiral staircases could not be safely evacuated in an emergency and didn't comply with fire and building codes. Tourists often suffered heat exhaustion, shortness of breath, panic attacks, claustrophobia and fear of heights.

Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-NY, who has for years pushed for the crown to be reopened, once called the decision to close it off "a partial victory for the terrorists." On Friday, he said he sent a letter to Barack Obama, inviting the president to be the first person to tour the reopened crown on July 4.

A National Park Service spokesman said last year that the statue's designer, Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, never intended for visitors to ascend to the crown.