It has been loved, revered, protected, and gently touched by the fingers of millions of Americans. Yesterday, the Liberty Bell was damaged by a man swinging a five-pound sledgehammer. The bell had been vandalized before, but never seriously.
People try to scratch it.
He said that once, before the bell was moved from Independence Hall to the nearby pavilion in 1976, a visitor had struck it with a car tailpipe. This old cracked bell, made of copper and tin, is the foremost symbol of American freedom. The bell was cast in England in 1752. It was shipped to Philadelphia that August to be placed in the tower of the State House at Sixth and Chestnut Streets, but when the bell was tested for tone quality, it cracked. Twice it was recast by iron-molders.