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Statue of Liberty's History

By Jeff Myers


The Statue of Liberty sits on New York's horizon, an icon that for more than a hundred years has symbolized freedom and America. Today Woman Freedom stands cool and calm in the Hudson Bay, looking over Manhattan Harbor, but so many years on one might wonder where she came from and why she is here. In order to answer these questions we will delve in the History of the Statue of Liberty.

The Statue of Liberty was first intended as a present to the US citizens from the French. It was to commemorate the hundredth year of the Declaration of Independence. The present also designated the friendship that had developed between the 2 countries in the Revolutionary War. Even though it was supposed to be finished in 1876, the opening plans didn't work out.

The statue itself was licensed to Sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, but the entire process was a joint effort from both sides of the pool. Thanks to a lack in funds from both states the project was initially delayed. Fundraisers were held to raise the needed money in France to insure the statue would rise on the edge of America. In the meantime on the American side, the famous publisher Joseph Pulitzer pulled out all the stops with his paper "The World" to help the North American folk step up to the plate. Ultimately the money was raised to assemble the pedestal the Statue of Liberty would later stand on. The Statue of Liberty's history was still in progress though, and Lady Liberty herself was not completed for another 8 years.

Once the Statue was complete in France in July of 1884, it took almost a full year to arrive on the beaches of Manhattan Harbour. She made her first debut in June of 1885. She had traveled from France to America in 214 crates holding 350 separate pieces on board the frigate called "Isere." Once the statue had eventually arrived in NY in many pieces it wanted to be put together, no simple task for a monument so sizeable. After the 4 month process of assembling the final statue, she was dedicated on October 28, 1886. Though she was meant to be finished for the year 1876, casting backwards this is often regarded as a minor speed bump in the established history of the Statue of Liberty.

Today folks principally flock to NY for Statue of Liberty tours. Even today she is an grand presense and visitors can be gaze up at the big statue and pedestal, which from the base to the end of her torch measures 305 feet 6 inches high. She also weighs an enormous 225 tons. For those who wish to climb and peer out over the huge harbor that so many rejoiced in reaching, the staircase inside is 154 steps up to her head.




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