Our Vacation Bible School theme this year is about New York, aka The Big Apple. Since I have been preparing for it, I found quite a few things I didn’t know about New York, so I decided to see how much you readers know …
1. What is the statue’s full official title? The Statue of Eternal Liberty; World of Liberal Enlightenment; Liberty and Freedom for All; Liberty Enlightening the World.
2. How many steps are there from the bottom of the pedestal to the crown? 589; 402; 292; 354.
3. Where is the Statue of Liberty Museum located? Within the Statue’s base; Battery Park; Empire State Building; Central Park.
4. From which metal is the shell of the statue made? Iron; Platinum; Steel; Copper.
5. The genius who built the frame for the Statue went on to build which other famous landmark? Empire State Building; Tower Bridge, London; The Eiffel Tower, Paris; L’Arc de Triomphe, Paris.
6. What is Liberty standing on (other than the pedestal)? Chains; people; an Army canon; none of the above.
7. The two most visited zoos in NYC are in Central Park and what other borough? Queens; Staten Island; The Bronx; Brooklyn.
8. True or False: The pathway on Coney Island is famous for being the longest in the world.
9. Battery Park is more than ____ years old. 150; 200; 250; 300.
10. Castle Garden, in Battery Park was the world’s first _____. Public Garden; Immigrant Depot; Amusement Park; Memorial Gravesite.
ANSWERS
1. Liberty Enlightening the World. Americans today call her “Lady Liberty” or the “Statue of Liberty.” Her original name ,however was given to her by the sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, who called her “La liberté éclairant le monde” or “Liberty Enlightening the World.”
2. 354. However, there is also an elevator at least to the pedestal!
3. Within the statue’s base.
4. Copper. Over the years, the Earth’s elements have corroded the shiny copper to its beautiful green patina.
5. The Eiffel Tower, in Paris. It was Gustav Eiffel.
6. Chains, signifying a woman who has escaping the chains of tyranny (the broken chains lie at her feet).
7. The Bronx.
8. True. Coney Island is a peninsula on the Atlantic Ocean in southern Brooklyn, New York. The site was formerly an island, but became partially connected to the mainland by landfill. Coney Island is the westernmost part of the barrier islands of Long Island, about four miles long and 0.5 miles wide.
9. Over 250 years old, in fact (closing in on 300.) Battery Park is a 25-acre public waterfront park located at the Battery, on the southern tip of Manhattan overlooking New York Harbor. The Battery hosted Dutch settlers when they came to Manhattan Island and established New Amsterdam. Now the Battery is the cradle of New York history. Visitors will find memorials, gardens and breathtaking views of the Statue of Liberty. One highlight is the Hope Garden (a rose garden with 10,000 specimens). Planted in 1992, the garden is a memorial to those who have died of AIDS. Several other memorials are there, including one to veterans of World War II, and another for the Korean War. Ample benches face the Hudson, Liberty Island and the Lady herself, lovely against a sunset.
10. Immigrant Depot.