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Statue of Liberty, After Going Dark, Lights Up the Internet

By Irene Plagianos | March 8, 2017 2:52pm | Updated on March 8, 2017 2:54pm
 Did Lady Liberty get the memo about the Day Without Women strike? The National Park Services says no.
Did Lady Liberty get the memo about the Day Without Women strike? The National Park Services says no.
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Statue Cruises

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. 

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.

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.

Naturally, there were plenty of other jokes and opinions.

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.