A power outage at the Statue of Liberty Tuesday night left the Internet pretty fired up.
The spotlights that illuminate Lady Liberty in New York Harbor seemed to mysteriously shut off at about 10 p.m. Tuesday evening. The sudden darkness sparked a torrent of speculation on social media, given its timing: the following day was International Women's Day, with its accompanying Day Without Women strike.
In a tweet Tuesday night, the National Park Service tentatively attributed the Green Goddess' loss of light to work on a generator.
Some lights on the Statue were temporarily off tonight. Likely related to new emergency generator/Hurricane Sandy recovery project work.
— Statue of Liberty NM (@StatueEllisNPS) March 8, 2017
The next morning, the agency released a statement saying the roughly two-hour-long outage was unplanned, but resulted from work on a "faulty lighting system."
Coincidental or intentional, the symbolism wasn't lost on organizers of the Women's March on Washington.
Lady Liberty got the memo. On 3/8, we strike! #DayWithoutAWoman #StatueOfLiberty (Anyone know who this amazing artist is? Pls let us know!) pic.twitter.com/AGaHvk3gOj
— Women's March (@womensmarch) March 8, 2017
Former Barack Obama advisor David Axelrod was one of several observers who associated the blackout with President Donald Trump's new immigration executive order curtailing travelers from six Muslim-majority countries, a revision of the previous ban halted in federal court.
.@POTUS signs a new travel ban and the lights mysteriously go out in the Statue of Liberty. Coincidence? Or...was Obama behind it?!?😉
— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) March 8, 2017
Naturally, there were plenty of other jokes and opinions.
When the lights came back on, the Statue of Liberty had a "Nevertheless, she persisted" tattoo on her forearm.
— Rex Huppke (@RexHuppke) March 8, 2017
Apparently the Statue of Liberty lights went out due to a power failure. But I would argue women are also protesting due to a power failure.
— Aparna Nancherla (@aparnapkin) March 8, 2017
The Wednesday morning National Park Service statement said last night's outage won't be the last, as workers repair the emergency generator system on Liberty Island. (The repairs are part of the last Hurricane Sandy Recovery projects.)
The agency promised to send out advance notice next time, lest we wonder — or fear the reason— why our glowing beacon of freedom is dark.
