In what could be the toughest reservation to book since Momofuku Ko opened, the Statue of Liberty crown, which will be reopened on July 4th for the first time since the 9/11 attacks, will begin accepting reservations starting this Saturday at 10 a.m. Tickets will cost an additional $3 and will be combined with reserved ferry tickets, which are currently $12 for adults, $10 for seniors and $5 for children. You can make reservations for up to a year in advance, but competition is going to be intense because the National Park Service is limiting the number of visitors to the crown to ten at a time, with about three groups ascending the crown per hour.

That will add up to an average of just 240 crown visitors per day! But at least the tickets are being distributed fairly to everyone—oh, unless you're a big shot TV personality or the Daily News, which is "teaming with the Department of Interior" to give five NYC children between ages 8 to 15 the chance to ascend to the crown on the day it opens. To participate, be a kid and write a 200-word essay on why the Statue and Ellis Island are important to you. (We'd go with that crazy fight scene on the Statue of Liberty scaffolding in Remo Williams, The Adventure Begins, but that would probably tip off our age.) Others can try making reservations online at Statue Cruises or by calling 877- LADY-TIX.

Then again, after reading the Park Service advisory about the climb, maybe we'll just hang out at the base:

The climb to the crown is a strenuous journey that encompasses 354 steps in a cramped enclosed area with high temperatures. The steps within the Statue are 19” wide, are shallow and taper at one end. Head clearance is 6 feet 2 inches. All crown visitors must be able to climb up and down the 354 steps unassisted... Since the statue is not air conditioned, interior temperatures can be 20 degrees higher than the outside... There are no rest rooms inside the statue itself. The climb is strenuous and not without risk, and the National Park Service recommends that crown visitors have no significant physical or mental conditions that would impair their ability to complete it, including, but not limited to: heart and respiratory conditions, mobility impairments, claustrophobia (fear of confined spaces), acrophobia (fear of heights) or vertigo (dizziness).

Woo-hoo! Let the reservation race begin!