About 4.5 million people visited Liberty Island in 2016, and spent more than $263 million, according to the release, citing the National Park Service’s annual report. They had hoped to cap off the day with a visit to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Under that deal, the state paid the Park Service about $250,000 so that its personnel could reopen Liberty Island, where the statue stands, for four days. New York State has 35 sites under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service, including places like the African Burial Ground in Lower Manhattan and Niagara Falls. Mr. Cuomo said the Statue of Liberty was a symbol that had welcomed immigrants to America for more than a century, and that shuttering it was an anathema.

Source: New York Times January 21, 2018 19:55 UTC