THE LIBERTY BELL

What a thrill to actually see what you have heard about since grade school. I ran across some interesting facts about the Liberty Bell:

The Liberty Bell weighs 2,080 pounds. The yoke weighs about 100 pounds. It is believed to be the original yoke. It is three feet tall and twelve feet around. It is composed from approximately 70% copper, 25% tin with traces of lead, zinc, arsenic, gold and sliver. It cost $225.50 in 1752. The strike note of the Bell is E-Flat.

As an April Fools; joke in 1996, Taco Bell ran a full-page advertisement in national newspaper claiming to have purchased the Liberty Bell. The stunt made national headlines.

The Bell has had three homes: Independence Hall (the Pennsylvania State House) from 1753 to 1976, the Liberty Bell Pavioion from 1976 to 2003 and the new Liberty Bell Center beginning on October 9, 2003.

More than a million people visit the Liberty Bell every year.

There she is - crack and all.

The story of the Liberty Bell --- It was first commissioned form the London firm of Lester and Pack in 1752 was incribed with part of a verse from Liviticus (25:10): "Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." It cracked when first rung after arrival in Philadelphia and was twice recast by local workmen John Pass and John Stow.

Bells were rung to mark the reading of the Declaration of Independence on July 8, 1776. Most historians believe the Liberty Bell was one of the bells run. In the 1830s the bell was adopted as a symbol of ablitionist societies (those wanting freedome from slavery), who dubbed it the "Liberty Bell". It acquired its distinctive large crack sometime in the early 19th century - a widespread story claims it cracked while ringing after the death of Chief Justice John Marshall in 1835.