Thursday, July 11, 2013

Statue of Liberty's History

By Jeff Myers


The Statue of Liberty sits on New York's horizon, an icon that for over a hundred years has designated freedom and America. Today Lady Freedom stands cool and calm in the Hudson Bay, looking over New York Harbor, but so many years after one might wonder where she came from and why she is here. So as to answer these questions we intend to dig in the History of the Statue of Liberty.

The Statue of Liberty was first intended as a gift to the Americans from the French. It was to celebrate the hundredth year of the Declaration of Independence. The present also designated the comradeship that had developed between the 2 countries in the Revolutionary War. Although it was meant to be completed in 1876, the original plans did not work out.

The statue itself was accredited to Sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, but the entire process was a joint effort from both sides of the pond. Thanks to a deficit in funds from both countries the project was at first delayed. Fundraisers were held to raise the required money in France to insure the statue would rise on the shore of America. Meanwhile on the American side, the famous publisher Joseph Pulitzer pulled out all of the stops with his paper "The World" to encourage the North American folk step up to the plate. Eventually 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 Woman Liberty herself wasn't finished for another 8 years.

Once the Statue was complete in France in July of 1884, it took just about a complete year to arrive on the beaches of Manhattan Harbor. 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 finally arrived in N. Y in several pieces it needed to be put together, no simple task for a monument so sizeable. After the 4 month process of building the final statue, she was dedicated on October 28, 1886. Though she was supposed to be completed for the year 1876, casting back this may be regarded as a minor speed bump in the established history of the Statue of Liberty.

Today folk largely flock to The Big Apple for Statue of Liberty tours. Even today she is an impressive presense and visitors can be gawk up at the big statue and pedestal, which from the base to the tip of her torch measures 305 feet 6 inches high. She also weighs a big 225 tons. For those who need to climb and peer out over the vast harbour that so many rejoiced in reaching, the staircase inside is 154 steps up to her head.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment