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The Statue of Liberty, New
York City
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The Statue of Liberty, New York City
The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the French government
to the United States on the occasion of the centennial of the American
Declaration of Independence.
The official name of the statue, translated from the French,
is “Liberty Enlightening the World “. She is also known as the Statue of
Liberty, Lady Liberty and Miss Liberty.
The gigantic figure of the French call "Liberty
Enlightening the World" is the result of ten years of work by the studio
of sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi. The steel structure of the statue was
designed by Gustav Eiffel, who was the builder of the Eiffel Tower. The
dedication date was set for July 4, 1876, but the lack of funds to be raised
through donations virtually delayed. Finally, on October 28, 1886, US President
Grover Cleveland gladly accepted the Statue of Liberty on Bedloe’s Island,
where donations from the American side had paid for her pedestal to be built. In
1956, the island was renamed Liberty Island in her honors.
Together with the classical style socle designed by the
American architect Richard M. Hunt, the total height of the statue from the base
of the ground-level foundations to the tip of the gold-plated flame of the
torch is around 95 meters. The seven beams radiating from her crown symbolize
the seven seas. For many people who have crossed the Atlantic to come to America,
the Statue of Liberty is a one of a kind symbols of freedom, liberty,
independence and prosperity. Hundreds of thousands of immigrants from all over
the world have passed under her gaze at the entrance to New York Harbor.
The Statue of Liberty was added to the UNESCO list of World
Cultural Heritage Sites in 1984.
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