Touching the Liberty Bell

Submitted by z7q2 t3_10ua801 in philadelphia

I was losing an argument that I had touched the Liberty Bell as a kid and I had to look it up and sure enough, before 1976 the bell was in Independence Hall and you could touch it. I went there in 1st grade in 1971 on a field trip and we all filed past it and I reached out and put my grubby mitts on it and no one said boo.

Anyway, I'm curious how many of you belong to this elite club, before they locked the bell away behind ropes and glass.

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s-nsh-n- t1_j7atuyu wrote

I think the bell was accessible through the early 2000s when a man hit it with a hammer.

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Thecrawsome t1_j7avodt wrote

Goddamn it Philly this is why we can't have nice things

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Fourlec t1_j7b0pp3 wrote

Yup this is exactly it and I remember when it happened.

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Muppet_Rock t1_j7d8hld wrote

Yep, I knocked on it with my knuckles on two seperate elementary school field trips in the mid-90's. The nut with the hammer and 9-11 changed all of that.

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BananaCEO t1_j7caiqd wrote

He must have mistaken it for a hitchhiking robot...

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Susbirder t1_j7capur wrote

Yep. That one asshole wrecked it for everyone.

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robo45h t1_j7e88sz wrote

Kinda true, but it was far more accessible when it was in Independence Hall (when I was a kid).

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juandonna t1_j7axfdn wrote

I was allowed to touch it on a field trip in probably late 90’s. I remember only being allowed to use two fingers.

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gyp_casino t1_j7bgl6x wrote

Lying awake at night, dreaming of running a third finger across the smooth brass.

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Acrobatic_Advance_71 t1_j7b9ljo wrote

I’m not sure if I was allowed to touch it but I think I did. It was just behind some velvet ropes. With one ranger watching and talking to my class.

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Meatball_express t1_j7bjtsj wrote

Same. I remember touching the cracks in particular.I want to say at the time it has those movie theater-style velvet ropes because I remember getting yelled at for making them sway

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Aggravating_Finish_6 t1_j7bokeu wrote

I also remember touching it on a visit in the 90s. But when I moved to Philly in the early 2000s it was in the new building

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_Hoofhearted t1_j7awkh3 wrote

I touched it on a class trip back in the early 70’s. I wish I knew then that I would become part of an elite group of scholars that had the privilege.

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Mr_Fraunces t1_j7b4ugb wrote

Yes. It was in Independence Hall and you could touch it. In preparation for the Bicentennial the NPS decided the Bell needed to be in it's own facility. Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell are actually owned by the city and the NPS needed the city to approve it. Rizzo was mayor at the time and he was initially reluctant. An agreement was reached and it was moved out onto the Mall into the purpose built Liberty Bell Pavilion.

It was a big deal when they moved it out of Independence Hall into the Pavilion. If I remember correctly it was broadcast live on the local channels.

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angry_old_dude t1_j7dj3ej wrote

> If I remember correctly it was broadcast live on the local channels.

I remember this.

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Virtualdrama t1_j7e2447 wrote

Yup. We sat there on the mall for hours waiting for the bell to make that trip.

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Ng3me t1_j7awx55 wrote

Generally you could touch it. You still sort of can. It’s behind a little rope but nothing is stopping you from touching it. The park ranger won’t arrest you, they’ll just remind you that you aren’t supposed to touch it. I touched it sometime in the 90s.

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randomzen t1_j7av15i wrote

I was born in '75 and I know I've touched it. I remember a few of us, myself included, actually made a fist and knocked on it to see if it would make a sound. I'm fairly certain I was in the 4th grade at the time.

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phoenix762 t1_j7axkpy wrote

The first time I saw the liberty bell it was in independence hall. My childhood friend actually was trying to go under it, can’t recall what happened. He was kinda mischievous…

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jpop237 t1_j7b4twc wrote

I touched it in the late 80s. I think everyone in line touched it.

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SBRH33 t1_j7az8xw wrote

In the 80's it was located in an little building on the corner of 5th and Market. You could walk in for free. The bell was surrounded by purple velvet rope and you could reach out and touch it cos it was so close. There was one single National Park Ranger standing in there that would caution everyone not to touch the bell. The Rangers were lenient with the no touch policy with children during school class trips.

Touching the bell wasn't technically a big deal because its coated with a protective wax.

Yea a homeless guy did walk in and bang on the bell with a hammer and damaged it.

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FishtownYo t1_j7brg41 wrote

On hot summer days I would stop into the building that housed the bell to cool off, used to be able to walk right in, no lines or anything

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orangeeyesnoo t1_j7b5yq9 wrote

I think I touched it in the 90's on a field trip down there

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jayradano t1_j7b6gki wrote

Def touched it in the 90s on a field trip right after churning butter

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meara t1_j7bnquk wrote

I touched it on a trip in the 80s or 90s.

The last time I visited, in the early 2000s, they had walled it all off and made me take off my outer shirt, go through a metal detector and get wanded down to see it.

Something about that experience really captured the state of fear and liberty in post-9/11 America.

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ClashMacLaver t1_j7b2lmz wrote

I touched it in the early 90s and then was told not to.

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Rahawk02 t1_j7b98ep wrote

Yeah my whole class touched it and there's a pic of it in my 4th grade yearbook if I can find it.

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Kristin2349 t1_j7kjs3s wrote

You had yearbooks in 4th grade?

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Rahawk02 t1_j7kk2cs wrote

Yeah I went to a Christian school there were only 12 kids in my class. It wasn’t a very big yearbook. It was like 12 11x17 pages folded over with a cover .

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laugust27 t1_j7bmc12 wrote

I visited on a 5th grade field trip about 1990. Our whole class was encouraged to line up and touch the Liberty Bell. I definitely have a memory of me and my friends singing a song we made up about it when we left to go to the Betsey Ross house and buy the facsimile colonial currency. It was de rigeuer to do this and buy astronaut ice cream at the Franklin Institute during this era. Lol!

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annefr26 t1_j7bekxd wrote

Late 80s when it was housed in a kiosk-like little structure near 5th and Market. My dad was in B'Nai B'Rith, and I remember they had a Holocaust Memorial ceremony in there one night. He brought me. I don't remember there being any security, just a bunch of old men, me (elementary school aged?), and the Liberty Bell.

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FuzzyScarf t1_j7bekk7 wrote

Yes! You could touch the bell until that guy hit it with a hammer. I think the last time I did that was late 90s early 2000s.

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Bellabird42 t1_j7banyr wrote

One of my ex’s threw up on it, according to him

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machinerer t1_j7bypw7 wrote

I was a curious kid. I went under the dividing ropes, and looked into it from underneath. I remember the clapper still being there, along with bracing material. May have been wood.

This was back in the 1990s.

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JasperDyne t1_j7c7w1u wrote

I touched it, but I’m old.

I also had a beer at Old City Tavern with Ben Franklin and Thom Jefferson. Did I mention that I’m old?

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carolineecouture t1_j7b5u7p wrote

Yes, I touched it when it was in Independence Hall.

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Soft-Tangelo-6884 t1_j7b6841 wrote

You weren’t supposed to, but they definitely let my 3 or 4 year old sister touch it in the 90s.

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PhuckedinPhilly t1_j7b9suy wrote

It is my goal to touch the liberty bell. I'm pretty sure I did when I was a kid but now that I can't, the need is greater.

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i-bleed-red t1_j7bdgi2 wrote

We went to the historic area pretty much annually in the 1970s as a class trip and I’m sure I touched it every time.

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cn45 t1_j7bn2rn wrote

I definitely touched it in the 90s. Then some asshat ruined it for everybody.

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helloiamabear t1_j7by4po wrote

In the 90s it was just roped off. Nobody cared if you reached over to touch it.

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Linzabee t1_j7c4hjd wrote

When I fell and hurt myself outside of the Liberty Bell enclosure in 2012, the park ranger helped me inside and sat me on a chair about 3 feet away from the Bell itself. He cleaned and bandaged me, which was really nice of him. It was a pretty cool experience being that close to the Bell, but I still didn’t get to touch it.

(Long story short for the curious, I was wearing flip flops heading somewhere nearby, a pouring rain hit, I was trying to scurry to shelter and ended up biting it. Had a big gash on my foot from the corner of the curb.).

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Zariman-10-0 t1_j7cjie6 wrote

Only kinda related, but a friend of mine went to see the Liberty bell with his parents when he was a little kid. As he’s walking around the thing, he slips and whacks his head right on the bell, near its crack. Apparently his Dad decided to have some fun with him and went all like “OMG you broke the Liberty bell!”

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[deleted] t1_j7bb67j wrote

I touched it too! I've been in therapy ever since.

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justasque t1_j7bhv3u wrote

Touched the Liberty Bell. Also climbed around on the smaller stones at Stonehenge.

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fugazishirt t1_j7bj4e9 wrote

Touched it in the late 90s. I feel part of a special club haha.

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bad_elyn t1_j7bjwsy wrote

I touched it in the early 2000s a few years before the idiot with the hammer happened.

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AbsentEmpire t1_j7blg8c wrote

I'm pretty sure I got to touch it as a child in the 90s while on a school trip, but I could be misremembering though.

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cn45 t1_j7bnqci wrote

There are two giant studs hammered into the bell which made the crack bigger. This was done on purpose by the best of intentions. I think we can allow students to touch it.

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SaltedPineapple t1_j7bpcv4 wrote

I got to touch it on a school trip in ‘95

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phillygirllovesbagel t1_j7bti7k wrote

Growing up in the 60’s I made many school and family trips to the bell. Touched it every single time. Lots of memories of school trips.

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nosceipsum21 t1_j7byzdv wrote

I remember being able to touch the bell in the 90’s. Not sure that I did, in fact, touch it but I know it wasn’t behind glass. I’m sure we have pictures from the visit somewhere…

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Neilpuck t1_j7c8unh wrote

I definitely was able to on a number of occasions. Glad I've done so.

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death_by_chocolate t1_j7cif68 wrote

Yes, I felt the Bell. When it was at Independence Hall. In the 60's I'd guess.

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MuricanA321 t1_j7cjf46 wrote

People on Reddit are hilarious. Just had some ding-dong tell me flip-flops weren’t actually called thongs throughout my own childhood, where I grew up. We should still be able to touch it. It belongs to us, and what better way for it to age than via the patina wrought by the hands of interested citizens?

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rhhkeely t1_j7csgem wrote

Oh I definitely got my fingers up in that crack in the mid 80s

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Cherrubim t1_j7cviiu wrote

Friend of mine kissed the liberty bell on a field trip.

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Irish_Blond_1964 t1_j7dnxrb wrote

I remember in the 80’s the bell being accessible.

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robo45h t1_j7e8rrc wrote

When it was in Independence Hall, it was just an ancillary exhibit (didn't have it's own building at the time). So it didn't have anyone constantly guarding it. And it was mead of an alloy of relatively soft metals. As a result, not only could you touch it, but many people used pen knives to shave off a souvenir from the bottom. You can clearly see how uneven the bottom is these days. This is the real reason you can't touch it as easily today; not the guy with the hammer who it it many years later in a different building. It was moved to it's own building on July 4th in the rain in 1976 (bicentennial). But this "space ship" building was later replaced with a better building.

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Allemaengel t1_j7b0awe wrote

Yes, I did as a kid back in the day . . . .

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noldyp t1_j7bfa7l wrote

I touched it in 1974 on a day trip to Philly

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angry_old_dude t1_j7diwln wrote

I remember visiting it when it was in Independence Hall. Being a kid, I'm sure I touched it.

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Maxmutinium t1_j7djwsd wrote

I briefly touched it during a high school trip. Mid 2010s

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felisverde t1_j7dmdkw wrote

Yup..touched it in grade school. It wasn't roped off when we were little either..think it was somewhere around 2nd grade-that would've been around 76/77. They hadn't moved it at that point either. The rope came first..I forget what year they did that, but pretty sure it was when they moved it. Completely cutting off access to it didn't happen til more recently tho.

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ktappe t1_j7esalu wrote

Yes, I recall a field trip into center city in the 70s and touching the bell too.

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start260 t1_j7fco65 wrote

It was taken on a tour of the country on a flatbed rail car in 1904.

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phillymjs t1_j7fn7jp wrote

Hell, at age almost-3 I went under the ropes and stood under it. My mom stood me in front of it and then was walking a few steps away to take my photo, and during those seconds I was unsupervised I also took a couple steps back. This was in 1976, when it was in the glass pavilion right on Market Street.

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Edison_Ruggles t1_j7g835t wrote

I'm fairly certain I touched it in the early 90s, but honestly can't remember for certain.

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carlosnelson_ t1_j7gzb8v wrote

I wonder if this was the same car I was on the other day. Something did not feel right & there was definitely trouble on the rear trucks of that car. When I exited the train at my destination I went to the front to let the motorman know the doors closed & the train began departing.

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RainyReese t1_j7haiiv wrote

When I was a little kid, I got my finger stuck in the crack. It hurt to get out.

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uptown_gargoyle t1_j7auabq wrote

I've actually never even seen it

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Rakinonna t1_j7bjclq wrote

LOL...me either..64 yrs old and lived all my life in Philly...never had a class trip to see the Liberty Bell or Bettsie Ross House, did do an outside "look" at independence Hall....I even went to college (Hussian School of Art) down in center city and never went to see any of the historical things, other than Penn's Landing and some of the old graveyards . I Keep promising myself I will some day , but I always find other things to do and see when I go down there

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HistoricalSubject t1_j7clc9s wrote

you were allowed to touch it until Covid, then they gave it a vaccine and one of the side effects the MSM didn't report on was the Bell's crack development and then Bill Gates put ropes around it cause he knew the combination of 5G and human skin cells would corrode it. see also: reptilian overlords and large hadron collider.

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