Starting July 4th, visitors to the Statue of Liberty were once again allowed to visit her crown.

Visitors can now enter the statue's crown and watch the stunning view of lower Manhattan and New York Harbor for the first time since the September 11th terrorist attacks nearly eight years ago.

The first visitors to the crown won a ticket through a newly-created lottery, which was created after officials expressed safety concerns about the narrow staircase used to climb to the top.

Several government officials, including Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Congressman Anthony Weiner, pushed to make the crown accessible.

"It is 354 steps. It's cramped, it's hot, it's humid, our hearts are beating and it's exciting. This is what the experience is all about," said Weiner.

Visitors Aaron Weisinger and Erica Breder knew they would be making history as some of the first visitors of the crown, but they made personal history as well when Weisinger proposed once they arrived at the top.

"I took my last step on the platform. I was so infatuated with the view, it was unbelievable, and he kind of turned me towards him," said Breder.

The California natives plan to marry sometime next year.

Liberty Island was closed after September 11th and reopened in December 2001 and the statue's pedestal reopened in April 2004. However, the National Parks Service commissioned a safety study before agreeing to reopen the statue's crown.

A ribbon cutting ceremony drew dignitaries like Governor David Paterson, New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine and Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

"Today's reopening of the crown is yet another wonderful gift to all the visitors who have not been fully able to experience the statue," said the mayor.

"This is a hugely important statue, important historical thing and today just liberates us from the tyranny of September 11th," said historian Ken Burns, who profiled the Statue of Liberty in a documentary.

Only 30 people an hour were allowed into the crown. They were brought up in groups of 10, guided by park rangers along the way, and said afterwards that the experience was crowded but exciting.

"The stairwell is so narrow, if anything were to happen, you're trapped in that small space," said Kati Curtis, the crown's first visitor.

"When I was a boy, I came up here all the time with my parents," said another visitor who brought his young daughter along. "It was really great to be able to come up here again, because when they closed it, [my daughter] was only a few months old. I was very happy to be able to bring her up here today."

Others who did not have tickets to visit the crown but went to see Liberty Island anyway said it took far too long to reopen the crown.

"I think it was all hype, similar to the World Trade Center. It's politics, people fight. It's the reality of life, especially in New York," said visitor Mike Shea.

Meanwhile, seven members of the U.S. armed forces from New York became American citizens at the feet of Lady Liberty on Saturday.

The seven men were sworn in as part of the ceremony on Liberty Island for the reopening of the crown.

The service members represented the Army, Navy and Marine Corps, and came from countries ranging from El Salvador to Egypt.

National Parks Service officials said Saturday that tickets to visit the crown were sold out through the middle of September. For information on how to get tickets, visit statuecruises.com.