The Statue of Liberty in New York City's harbor entrance is a much loved and visited
tourist site. However, in the Winter, that usually meant that the tourists would
freeze as they climbed the stairs inside the statue to the top. Thanks to Bell &
Gossett pumps and systems, the grand statue is now keeping everyone warm.
"Give me your tired your poor, your huddled masses yearning
to be free."
When poet Emma Lazarus wrote those words more than 100
years ago, she was referring to the boatloads of immigrants
who steamed past the awe inspiring Statue of Liberty on
their way into New York harbor. Today, however, with most
immigration into New York coming through Kennedy airport,
those poetic words would recently have been referring
to the tourists visiting the Statue of Liberty in the cold
Winter months, freezing as they climb the the statue's 335
steps to the top.
Designed by sculptor, Auguste Bartholdi and structural engineer,
Gustave Eiffel, the 111-foot (heel to top of head) statue,
which was completed in 1884, was never designed to be
heated. However, this cold icon of liberty is now warming
up with help from Bell & Gossett.
The surface of the statue is composed on hammered copper
sheets riveted to an iron framework. The statue rests upon
a granite star-shaped pedestal, housing the museum, gift
shop, information center, security area, fire system and the
hydraulic elevator, which caries visitors to the top of the
pedestal. Inadequately heating this space was an antiquated,
50-year old, oil-fired boiler. This has now being replaced
by a state of the art system of eight hydronic boilers, each
with a 2" Bell & Gossett circulator pump and a 2" Bell &
Gossett EAS Enhanced Air Separator. According to Mario
Fazzari of Wallace-Eannace, the engineering company for
this job, "The people at the Statue of Liberty like the new
heating system because it's quiet and they have heat in parts
of the Statue and buildings that never received heat before."
Morton Grove
Tel 847 966-3700
Bell & Gossett Warms Up Lady Liberty