Here are the facts about the Statue of Liberty
STATUE OF LIBERTY – Know these facts about the famous landmark in New York that has been featured in various movies and TV shows.
Its formal name is Liberty Enlightening the World and it was a gift of friendship from the people of France to the United States which was dedicated on October 28, 1886. The colossal statue is recognized as a universal symbol of freedom and democracy.
Measurements
- 305 feet (93 meters) high including its pedestal
- the torch measures 29 feet (8.8 meters from the flame tip to the bottom of the handle )
- service ladder inside the arm measures 42-foot (12.8-meters)
This monument represents a woman holding a torch in her raised right hand while she is bearing the adoption date of the Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776) in her left hand.
It was Edouard de Laboulaye, a French historian, who made the proposal for the statue. The work began in France in 1875 which was led by sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi after French people contributed money for it.
The statue was made out of copper sheets and was hammered into shape by hand. Then, it was assembled over a framework of four gigantic steel supports by designers Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc and Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel.
Based on the article from Encyclopedia Britannica, there is an elevator that carries visitors to the observation deck in the pedestal. That area could also be reached by a stairway. In addition, visitors can also use the spiral staircase leads to an observation platform in the figure’s crown.
A plaque at the pedestal’s entrance features the “The New Colossus” (1883) by Emma Lazarus. This was written to help raise money for the pedestal. The sonnet reads:
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
On July 4, 1884, this was presented to the American minister to France Levi Morton (later vice president) in a ceremony in Paris. Then, the statue was disassembled and shipped to New York City with the measurements of 151 feet 1 inch (46 meters) high and weighing 225 tons. It was American architect Richard Morris Hunt who designed and built the pedestal within the walls of Fort Wood on Bedloe’s Island. In 1984, the Statue of Liberty was added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List.
The torch of the statue underwent several modifications and that included its conversion to electric power in 1916. In the mid-1980s, the torch was redesigned with repoussé copper sheathed in gold leaf. The illuminated torch was considered a navigational aid and so the U.S. Lighthouse Board administered it at first. Then, it was transferred in 1901 to the War Department as Fort Wood was still an operational Army post back then. In 1924, the Statue of Liberty was declared a national monument and it was placed under the National Park Service, according to the article.
READ ALSO: MAYON VOLCANO: 5 Facts About the “Perfect Cone” Volcano
