Torch of Liberty

No visitor has stood on the torch balcony of the Statue of Liberty since 1916.

That July, German saboteurs blew up the Black Tom munitions depot on the Jersey City waterfront, and flying debris damaged the statue's arm. The torch was closed to the public and has stayed closed ever since. That same year Gutzon Borglum, later the sculptor of Mount Rushmore, cut windows into the copper flame so it could be lit from inside, and his alterations leaked for decades. For the 1986 centennial a new torch replaced it, its flame covered in 24-karat gold leaf.

This picture strips the torch down to a sign made of light. A tapered blue handle, fading to pink at its tip, holds up a red and orange flame that rises in two curving tongues. Around it a ring of pale blue stars glows against a black ground, with a faint thin circle drawn between them. The colors run close to neon, best in a dim room, a bar or a game room.