The Statue of Liberty in Reality and Fiction

In order to understand the present, and possible future, we must look to the past. Excerpts from this article are taken from the New York Times, July 31 1916.

Ellis Island Like War-Swept Town; Damage Estimated at $75,000; Only Six of 607 Persons at Bureau Receive Injuries ;- Immigrants Taken to Battery Till Danger Is Past ;- Hospital Roof Caves In. ELLIS ISLAND LIKE WAR-SWEPT TOWN


Visitors landing at the Immigration Station on Ellis Island yesterday afternoon might easily have imagined they were on the track of the great war and entering a town that had been besieged for several days. The main building on the right and the general hospital on left of the ferry slip had every window shattered, and in many cases the frames also had disappeared.

This was caused by an explosion on Black Tom island, a weapons depot at the time. Black Tom island is close to Ellis Island.

The only living thing that was hit by the thousands of shrapnel bullets which struck the buildings was Toto, a little black kitten, known all over the island as Chief Clerk Sherman's office pet. After the excitment was over Toto was found with a bullet wound in one of his hind legs, and a surgeon dressed the injured member, much to the relief of the animal.

I'll get you my pretty, and your little kitty too!!!

The only living thing on the wreck-strewn shore of no. 3 island was a rabbit owned by one of the nurses in the hospital, which had dashed out of the building after being smothered with molasses from a can upset by the effect of the explosion, and refused to be comforted.

Maybe the rabbit put it's head in the wrong hole.

Although it is generally believed to be the work of German terrorists, the case remains unsolved. This was before America entered the first world war.

Two of the guards who had lit the smudge pots were immediately arrested. However, it soon became clear that the blast had not been an accident. It was traced to a Slovak immigrant named Michael Kristoff (probably a stolen identity), who had served in the U.S. Army, but admitted to carrying suitcases for the Germans before America entered World War I.

The Statue of Liberty was damaged by shrapnel, and the torch remains closed to visitors to this day. I wonder why it has never been re-opened after 92 years?

According to the FBI, the Statue was threatened by terrorists in 1965.

The Statue of Liberty had previously been threatened by terrorism, according to the FBI. On February 18, 1965, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced it had uncovered a plot by three commandos from the Black Liberation Front, who were allegedly connected to Cuba, and a female co-conspirator from Montreal connected with the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ), seeking independence for Quebec from Canada, who were sent to destroy the statue and at least two other national monuments — the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia and the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C.

Who could forget the final scene of Planet of the Apes, where Charlton Heston realizes he was on Earth all along after he finds the Statue of Liberty half sunken in sand?

"You maniacs! You blew it up! God Damn you! God Damn you all to Hell!"

Promo ad for D.C.'s Countdown to Final Crisis, 2007.



At the end of this trailer for the film "Cloverfield", The head of the Statue of Liberty is seen rolling down the street.



In Dreamworks Madagascar, Alex the lion builds a replica of the Statue, only to see it destroyed by fire.

There are more. On the Discovery channel's "World Without Humans", they show the statue rusting away and falling apart a couple of hundred years after humans leave the Earth.(clip not available)

So why is the media fascinated with the destruction of the Statue?