Statue of Liberty
Édouard René de Laboulaye was a French politician with a love for America. In 1865 Laboulaye invited friends to his country house outside Paris. As they toasted the end of the American Civil War, Laboulaye made a suggestion: a gift from the French people to the American people. But what kind of gift? his guests asked.
Sculptor
Frédéric Auguste de Bartholdi
Thousands
of French citizens offered donations. Gustave Eiffel The statue stayed in pieces through the early 1880s. The separate pieces were scattered about New York -- the huge head here, a gargantuan foot there. The hand with the torch stood in Madison Square, where visitors could climb up inside it.
For a long time it seemed like this statue would never be put together and raised. Some New Yorkers even suggested leaving it in parts permanently. People could travel about the city and visit the different pieces one by one. A "serial statue," they called it.
But NEW
YORK WORLD publisher Joseph Pulitzer
Pulitzer begged his readers to donate anything they could. A total of 121,000 did, with most sending less than a dollar. Finally, the statue could stand. The day of the Statue of Liberty's dedication dawned rainy and cold. Fog made it difficult to see the top of the giant statue, which had cost a total of $650,000 to build. Still, one million people and 300 ships came out for the spectacle on October 28, 1886. There was a twenty-one-gun salute, a speech by President Grover Cleveland, and a grand ball in the evening. The total cost of the celebration was $9,000.
From toe to torch is 151
feet. The hands are 150 square feet each, the size of an average bedroom.
At eight feet, the index finger is the length of a surfboard, and
each fingernail is the size of a sheet of paper. Altogether, the statue
weighs 225 tons -- equal to 5,000 junior-high-school students, more
or less. There are 354 steps inside the statue and its pedestal. There are 25 viewing windows in the crown. The seven rays of Liberty's crown symbolize the seven seas and seven continents of the world. Liberty holds a tablet in her left hand that reads "July 4, 1776" (in Roman numerals),
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was sent to America for ideas. As his ship arrived in New York, an
image came to him: a great female statue, standing on an island in
the harbor. It would symbolize liberty and Franco-American friendship.
--
who later built the famous tower in Paris -- created the statue's
iron skeleton. Liberty was designed by the French sculptor Frederic
Auguste Bartholdi. The hollow copper statue was built in France -
it was finished in July, 1884. It was brought to the USA in 350 pieces
on a French ship called the "Isere" (in June, 1885).
felt
the uncompleted statue was an embarassment. The obstacle, he knew,
was money. The French people had paid for the statue. Americans were
supposed to pay for an 89-foot pedestal. A fund was started in 1884.
But a year later, the pedestal stood just 15 feet high.
