France gave the United States with an outstanding birthday gift on July 4, 1884: the Statue of Liberty! It is as tall as a 15-story skyscraper without its pedestal. She is the representative of the United States. However, the world-famous Statue of Liberty, which stands in New York Harbor, was constructed in France. The monument was handed to the United States, disassembled, moved over the Atlantic Ocean in cartons, and reconstructed in the United States. It was France's gift to the people of the United States.
It all began one night near Paris in 1865, during supper. A group of Frenchmen were talking about their dictatorial emperor and the democratic government of the United States. They planned to erect a monument to American liberty in order to reinforce French calls for democracy in their own nation. The sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi (bar-TOLE-dee) was present at the meal. He pictured a statue of a lady carrying a torch lit with the light of liberty.
It took 21 years to turn Bartholdi's notion into a reality. The statue was built using funds given by French supporters, while the pedestal was paid for the Americans. The statue was finally dedicated in 1886.
FAST FACTS
• The statue sways 3 inches (7.62 centimeters) in the wind; the torch sways 5 inches (12.7 centimeters).
• Visitors climb 354 steps (22 stories) to look out from 25 windows in the crown.
• The statue—151 feet, 1 inch (46 meters, 2.5 centimeters) tall—was the tallest structure in the U.S. at that time.
• Engineer Gustave Eiffel, who would later design the Eiffel Tower in Paris, designed Liberty’s “spine.” Inside the statue four huge iron columns support a metal framework that holds the thin copper skin.
• Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi knew he wanted to build a giant copper goddess; he used his mother as the model.
• The statue is covered in 300 sheets of coin-thin copper. They were hammered into different shapes and riveted together.
• The arm with the torch measures 46 feet (14 meters); the finger, 8 feet (2.4 meters); the nose, nearly 5 feet (1.5 meters).
• Seven rays in the crown represent the Earth’s seven seas.
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