[Long:] It is one of the most magnificent views in the world and now visitors to the Statue of Liberty in the New York Harbor can experience it, once again, for the first time since 911. Tourists are being allowed to climb to the observation deck in the Lady Liberty crown and that includes CNN national correspondent Susan Candiotti who was one of the first to make it up to the top.
[Susan Candiotti, Cnn National Correspondent:] It's a long climb, but here we go. This part's not bad because this is the pedestal, the start of 354 steps up to the crown.
[Unidentified Male:] Now you're going to see the Eiffel structure.
[Candiotti:] Now, how do you describe that? Wow.
[Unidentified Male:] It's just overwhelming. You can't even say how wonderful it is.
[Candiotti:] All right. Let's go.
[Unidentified Male:] We have 24 steps and then another 162.
[Candiotti:] These steps are not bad at all. No feeling of closeness at this point. OK.
[Unidentified Female:] For people that aren't able to go all the way up to the crown they have four options to look up. Each yellow box represents an area that you can look up her skirt.
[Candiotti:] So we can look up the skirt.
[Unidentified Female:] You can look up and see the spiral staircase.
[Candiotti:] Oh, my.
[Unidentified Female:] Her outer coat is only two pennies thick of copper.
[Candiotti:] Still not bad. I guess we keep going up this way. Steps are very narrow. Only a little over maybe a foot and a half. The creases that you're looking at now, these are the wrinkles in the statute's dress and this is what it looks like from the inside. Also if you have any issues with height, it's kind of scary when you look over the side and peer down below. Double railings are brand new. They were put in recently. And it really does help when you're going up here. Still going. We're here. We're already up to the crown. It's magnificent. And if you thought it was going to be big, it isn't. Only ten people will come up here at a time and spend about 10, 15 minutes. But look at this view. OK. We can see the bottom of the torch out the window. Lady Liberty's arm. Her sleeve. Through the windows you can also see some of the points on Lady Liberty's crown. There are seven of them and they represent the seven continents, the Seven Seas, and the Seven known planets at the time the statute was built. These waves that you see in the ceiling actually represent the curls on the other side, Lady Liberty's curls. If you want to experience this, you can go on-line and buy tickets ahead of time. It only costs $15. They are sold out through next month.
[Long:] Susan Candiotti has made her way back down hundreds of stairs. A great opportunity for people to celebrate the fourth day. I understand, there is an interesting story that comes out of the Statue of Liberty crown that for a young couple.
[Candiotti:] We have many stories like that. But that one in particular, yes. Among the visitors a young man from San Francisco and his girlfriend. When they got to the crown the young man dropped to his knees and made a marriage proposal to his girlfriend. She was floored and so was everyone else up there. He presented her with a huge rock and, yes, she accepted. We also had an eight-year-old little girl up there who had written essays about the Statue of Liberty and was thrilled to be there including a history professor who overcame her fear of claustrophobia to climb up those stairs and she said it was well worth it. And three guys from Sweden who went online. Obviously, the holiday doesn't have the meaning it does for Americans, but they were very excited to be here, too. So quite an interesting mix of people.
[Long:] Susan Candiotti live for us from the Statue of Liberty. Susan, thank you and happy fourth. Now, it is an iconic image, as you know, but you've likely never seen the statue of Liberty quite like this. You have to rely on the internet and Josh Levs for this interesting new look. Josh.
[Josh Levs, Cnn Correspondent:] Did you say, you've seen it before? Have you been inside?
[Long:] I did climb to the top about 15 years ago.
[Levs:] You did. You know, I'm from upstate New York and I've been to the city so much, but I've never actually gone inside.
[Long:] I think a lot of people who have it in their own backyard don't do it but I make the trek and I decided to do. It was a glorious view.
[Levs:] Wait. We're both from upstate New York, aren't we?
[Long:] We are.
[Levs:] Well, you know, one day of these days we're all going to check it out. Hey, everybody, here I am. So take this out too. This is extremely cool. Look at this. This is the statue of liberty created through this composite of iReport photos that kind of smushed together all into one. When you take a look at it, you can click on every single block and see how it works. Let's zoom right in. I want you to check this out. It's at Cnn.com right now. CNN.comtravel, they put together this from so many iReports and when you click on any square you get an image up that's up close from a unique perspective and you get to hear the person's story that goes along with it. I particularly like this section down here where you can see up close the book that Lady Liberty is holding on to. I think that one. There you go. There you can see, July 4th 1776. A unique looktravel. Right now, we're also showing you lots of other iReports at ireport.com. We're inviting you to send in yours. Check out this sunset cruise image. Isn't that beautiful?
[Long:] Beautiful.
[Levs:] Beautiful. Yeas, this was taken by MC. She actually took it two years ago, but now that we're collecting these, she put them all together right here. It's stunning and there's no digital changes in there, that's all original. And you know what, let's just show you the graphic because we want you to send in your images. We got ireport.com. We're also hearing from you today on the blog. People are talking about this a lot, Melissa. Cnn.comnewsroom and you can go ahead and use Facebook and Twitter. I'm at joshlevscnn and we love to get your stories and I tell you, today of all days, it's really nice to be getting these beautiful, patriotic images.
[Long:] It is. You're so connected on Facebook and Twitter.
[Levs:] I do my best.
[Long:] All right. Thanks, Josh.
[Levs:] Thanks a lot.
[Long:] Speaking of josh, he's going to join us in a little bit. We're going to continue to talk about gas prices that are high. Many people deciding to skip the road trip this year and just come back and talk to us about how you are celebrating the fourth of July this year.
[Spc. Michael Walker, U.s. Army:] I'm Specialist Michael Walker from Gainesville, Georgia. I just wanted to wish my family a happy fourth of July and tell them that I love them and I miss them.