The Statue of Liberty stands 305 feet on her majestic pedestal. This majestic copper statue was given by the people of France to the people of the United States. It was intended to be finished by 1876, the one-hundredth anniversary of America’s Declaration of Independence, but fundraising efforts took longer than anticipated.
Lady Liberty is in the news today because it was on this day in 1885 that she arrived in New York Harbor. She was shipped from France across the Atlantic Ocean in 350 individual pieces packed in more than 200 cases, then reassembled.
The statue was designed by French sculptor Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi, who modeled it after his own mother. He was assisted by engineer Gustave Eiffel, who later developed the iconic tower in Paris that bears his name.
Dubbed “Liberty Enlightening the World,” the statue was taller than any structure in New York City at the time. It was originally copper-colored but underwent a natural color-change process over the years that produced its current greenish-blue hue.
Ellis Island, located near Bedloe’s Island (which in 1956 was renamed Liberty Island) opened in 1892 as America’s chief immigration station. For the next sixty-two years, Lady Liberty stood watch over more than twelve million immigrants who sailed as she had into New York harbor.
My wife and I visited the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island a few years ago, making a memory we’ll have for the rest of our lives. I had seen the statue in movies and photos over the years, of course, and flown over it numerous times. But I had never seen it up close.
The statue portrays a proud woman dressed in a loose robe which cascades in graceful folds to the top of the pedestal on which she stands. In her right hand she holds a great torch raised high in the air. In her left arm she grasps a tablet bearing the date of the Declaration of Independence.
A crown…
… Read More
—
Click Read More to read the rest of the story from our content source/partners – Denison Forum.