Editing Liberty Bell (section)

===21st century===
The new facility that opened hours after the bell was installed on October 9, 2003, is adjacent to an outline of Washington's slave quarters marked in the pavement, with interpretive panels explaining the significance of what was found.<ref name="hung" /> The GPS address is 526 Market Street.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/inde/planyourvisit/libertybellcenter.htm|title=Visiting the Liberty Bell Center – Independence National Historical Park|publisher=National Park Service|access-date=2016-08-05|archive-date=August 25, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160825015150/https://www.nps.gov/inde/planyourvisit/libertybellcenter.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

Inside the Liberty Bell Center, visitors pass through a number of exhibits about the bell before reaching the Liberty Bell itself. Due to security concerns following an attack on the bell by a visitor with a hammer in 2001, the bell is hung out of easy reach of visitors, who are no longer allowed to touch it, and all visitors undergo a security screening.<ref name="hung">{{Cite book |last=Yamin |first=Rebecca |title=Digging in the City of Brotherly Love: Stories from Philadelphia Archeology |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2008 |location=New Haven, Ct. |pages=39–53 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AL_G5WIDbqkC&q=liberty+bell+october+9+2003&pg=PA52 |access-date=August 9, 2010 |isbn=978-0-300-10091-4 |archive-date=October 19, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211019222906/https://books.google.com/books?id=AL_G5WIDbqkC&q=liberty+bell+october+9+2003&pg=PA52 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The Liberty Bell now weighs {{convert|2080|lb}}. Its metal is 70%&nbsp;copper and 25%&nbsp;tin, with the remainder consisting of lead, zinc, arsenic, gold, and silver. It hangs from what is believed to be its original yoke, made from [[Ulmus americana|American elm]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Liberty Bell |publisher=National Park Service |url=http://www.nps.gov/inde/planyourvisit/upload/english.pdf |access-date=August 11, 2010 |archive-date=November 30, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101130163656/http://www.nps.gov/inde/planyourvisit/upload/english.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> Although the crack in the bell appears to end at the abbreviation "Philad<sup>a</sup>" in the last line of the inscription, that is merely the widened crack, filed out during the 19th century to allow the bell to ring. A hairline crack, extending through to the inside of the bell, continues towards the right and gradually moves to the top of the bell, through the word "and" in "Pass and Stow", then through the word "the" before the word "Assembly", and finally through the letters "rty" in the word "Liberty". The crack ends near the attachment with the yoke.<ref>The Franklin Institute, p. 21</ref>

Professor Constance M. Greiff, in her book tracing the history of Independence National Historical Park, wrote of the Liberty Bell:
<blockquote>
<nowiki>[T]</nowiki>he Liberty Bell is the most venerated object in the park, a national icon. It is not as beautiful as some other things that were in Independence Hall in those momentous days two hundred years ago, and it is irreparably damaged. Perhaps that is part of its almost mystical appeal. Like our democracy it is fragile and imperfect, but it has weathered threats, and it has endured.<ref>Greiff, p. 14</ref>
</blockquote>