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Statue of Liberty Abruptly Goes Dark, Internet Wonders Why

The National Park Service had a less spectacular explanation than some on social media

The lights on the Statue of Liberty went out Tuesday night and within minutes social media was speculating on what caused the abrupt darkness.

Lady Liberty's lights darkened shortly before 11 p.m., although her torch and crown remained lit.

Some speculated that it was in protest of President Donald Trump or a show of solidarity for the "Day Without a Woman" strike Wednesday.

"A sign of the times," Kaivan Shroff posted on Twitter.

Shannon Woodward wrote in apost that the lights were off “in honor of tomorrow’s A DAY WITHOUT A WOMAN.”

Anna Mahalak tweeted that it was because "Trump has plunged our country into darkness."

The National Park Service had a less spectacular explanation: someone forgot to flip a switch. 

Last month, the Statue of Liberty experienced a short in the electrical system, and a temporary fix was made right away, according to Rob Parrish, chief of professional services at the Statue of Liberty. Crews returned Tuesday to make a permanent fix, but someone failed to hit the reset button.

"Everything was fixed. They just forgot to turn the breaker back on, basically," said Parrish, attributing it to "human error." 

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The lights came back on shortly before midnight.

Meanwhile, spectators should expect more outages over the next couple of weeks as part of a separate, ongoing Hurricane Sandy recovery project. 

"While this was an unplanned outage, there will be some planned outages related to the installation of a new emergency backup generator for Liberty Island," according to a statement from the National Park Service. "The new emergency generator is one of the last Hurricane Sandy recovery projects at Liberty Island and will ensure that Lady Liberty shines brightly and weathers future storms."

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