Human Rights

The Statue Of Liberty Went Dark For An Hour And Everyone Freaked Out

The internet is convinced the outage had symbolic meaning.

The Statue of Liberty
Getty Images

The Statue of Liberty is such an iconic symbol that pretty much any change from the norm leads to people on the internet freaking out. And recent weeks have provided all kinds of material. First, there was the "refugees welcome" banner that was hung on the base of the statue on the "Day Without Immigrants." Then, the lights went out on Lady Liberty a day after President Trump signed a revised executive order on immigration and just before "A Day Without a Woman." 

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A lot of people saw it as a symbol — they just can't agree on what it was for.

It is the internet, after all, so everybody's gotta have an opinion.

Giphy

Jerry Willis of the National Park Service told the Washington Post the outage may have been caused by ongoing work on a new emergency backup generator for Liberty Island. 

"We don't use the lighting system to back any particular cause," Willis said.