How many steps does it take to reach the crown of the Statue of Liberty?

How to get close to this number

Estimate from the height of each section. The pedestal is a substantial building in itself and the statue above it is about as tall again, so the climb is comparable to a twenty-storey building. Twenty storeys at roughly twenty steps each gives a total in the high hundreds.

The two-section split in the explanation is the useful structure: a couple of hundred steps to the top of the pedestal, then a tight double-helix staircase for the rest. Two staircases of different character in one climb is unusual, and the second is the reason the crown is the hardest part to visit.

The double helix is a genuinely clever piece of engineering, and it exists because of throughput. Two interleaved spirals let people climbing and descending pass without meeting in a shaft too narrow for a single two-way stair — the same constraint that limits crown tickets and forces advance booking.