The Statue of Liberty reopens to visitors today for the first time since the September 11, 2001, attacks following security and safety improvements paid for by more than $30 million (€24.9 million) in donations.
The national monument in New York Harbour was closed nearly three years ago as a security precaution after Islamic extremists killed nearly 3,000 people in hijacked aircraft attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
The push to re-open the Statue of Liberty took place as top local elected officials complained bitterly about New York's disproportionately low share of government money for security.
Donations of $30 million to the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation charity and $6 million from a campaign sponsored by American Express paid for the upgrades, the US National Park Service said.
Officials improved emergency exits, created new exits, tightened security screening, overhauled fire control systems and enclosed stairways for safe passage in case of a fire.
"We have a vast array of safety and security improvements that are in place today that were not here before 9/11," Larry Parkinson, the U.S. Interior Department official in charge of security said on a visit to the statue.
Visitors will be screened once before they board ferries to Liberty Island, where the statue stands, and a second time before entering the 305-foot tall structure.
But the National Park Service, which runs the island, and the Department of Interior have no plans to allow visitors to make the 22-story climb of more than 350 steps to the statue's crown - something one New York congressman has decried as a "win for the terrorists."
US Representative Anthony Weiner, a Democrat, described the reopening of the base, pedestal and observation deck as "no triumph" for the United States in its declared war on terrorism.
"If we do not reopen the Statue of Liberty's crown, the terrorists will have won," Weiner said in a statement. "Reopening her feet is no triumph."