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Exterior of Independence Hall (all photos by M. McClellan)

Now that the Welcome America celebrations are behind us for another year, it’s time to bid farewell to the familiar view of the Independence Hall tower, at least for the next year or so. You see, Philadelphia’s hot summers and cold winters, along with years of spotty maintenance, have taken a toll on the landmark’s iconic spire.

Specially trained restorers will spend the next 18 months carefully taking the tower apart piece-by-piece, rebuilding every single element and replaced each reinforced piece right where it belongs. When the edifice is unveiled in the Fall of 2011, it will look just as good as the day it was built.

In preparation for these repairs, we got a chance to take a behind-the-scenes tour of the tower (it’s not typically open to the public), to document the way it looks now. To see all the pictures, click over to the slideshow on Flickr (the same slideshow is also embedded after the jump, if you prefer to view it that way). Additionally, a short video has also been produced about the tower’s history. Click here to see that.