The Statue of Liberty sits next to the Empire State Building as seen from Bayonne
The Statue of Liberty sits next to the Empire State Building as seen from Bayonne Reuters

The Statue of Liberty will close for renovations beginning in late October for one year, but Liberty Island will remain open.

The National Parks Service, which oversees the statue and Ellis Island, will close the doors of the Statue of Liberty to the public on Oct. 28 for a $27.25 million renovation for increased safety and accessibility.

The statue, which will celebrate its 125th year anniversary this year, will undergo renovations including, updating the statue's mechanical and electrical systems, adding new fire suppression equipment, replacing elevators and enclosing one of the staircases for safety.

"I promised that we would continue to upgrade the interior to make it safer and more accessible for all," Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said in a statement. "We are taking a major step in bringing a 19th Century icon into the 21st Century."

After being closed for security precautions after the 9/11 attacks, the statue underwent a $20 million security upgrade. However, new fire codes require that "the statue to be evacuated within two hours, but the current staircases on either side of the pedestal do not meet the standards," according to the Associated Press.

The statue will remain unobstructed from view while the Joseph Construction Corp. of Pine Brook, N.J. upgrades "Lady Liberty," a gift from France in 1885.

Liberty Island will be accessible to the public during the construction and should not yield a lower amount of visitors than the 3.5 million people who visit the Statue of Liberty yearly. According to the National Parks Service, only 30 percent of visitors actually enter the statue, while others merely gawk at it from a spot within the 14 acres of Liberty Island.