Statue of Liberty Crown to reopen on the 4th of July

by: Jason Springer

Fri May 08, 2009 at 08:00:00 AM EDT

"Today we're announcing that on the Fourth of July we will open up the crown of the Statue of Liberty to the entire people of America," Salazar told NBC's Matt Lauer. More information will come during a 9 a.m. press conference.

The secretary said his mandated review of the logistics and safety concerns has concluded and that "improvements are going to happen" before the crown reopens in early July.

The plan, as Salazar described it, is to first allow 30 people into the crown per hour.

"We'll follow that up with more rehab and ultimately increase the number who can come up here," Salazar said.

"We are worried about it and know that we have to take precautions before people can come up here." He said there will be two layers of security screening before visitors get to the top, but acknowledged his decision is "not going to be totally risk-free."