The statue of liberty

Posted by Ash K on Tuesday, December 14, 2010 1

The Statue of Liberty is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, designed by Frédéric Bartholdi and dedicated on October 28, 1886. The statue, a gift to the United States from the people of France, is of a robed female figure representing Libertas, the Roman goddess of freedom, who bears a torch and a tabula ansata  upon which is inscribed the date of the American Declaration of Independence. A broken chain lies at her feet. The statue has become an iconic symbol of freedom and of the United States.The flame of the torch is coated in gold leaf. It is one of the symbols of the United States that is recognized all over the world as a symbol of a country to which people fled to escape persecution and oppression.

The interior of the statue is open to visitors. You have to take a ferry from either Liberty Park in New Jersey or Battery Park in New York to reach the location of the statue.

The French sculptor, Frederic Bartholdi, was commissioned to create this monument when it was decided what the gift from France would be. His first model, completed in 1870, was only small and is presently on display in the Jardin de Luxembourg in Paris. The American people built the base and the French people built the sculpture and took responsibility for shipping it to New York. Delays prevented the statue from being presented on the date of the centennial, but the arm and the torch were completed so that at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876, these pieces were displayed. Visitors paid 50 cents to climb a tall ladder and view these parts of the structure.

The Statue of Liberty arrived in New York Harbor on July 17, 1885. It was reduced to 350 pieces and shipped in 214 crates. Once it arrived, the statue then had to be put back together. The final construction of the pedestal was completed on April 22, 1886. During the time between this completion and its arrival, the statue was kept in storage. It took four months to reassemble the pieces and was unveiled on October 22, 1886. Read more: http://tiny.ly/V6AH

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