The United States is home to many different icons representing the country and have become some of the trademarks that many foreign countries use to identify the United States. The Statue of Liberty is one of these icons. If you ask anyone that lives in the United States what one thing that they associate with the United States and the freedom that the country represents, a majority of those people will likely answer the Statue of Liberty. She is one of the national treasures that every American citizen should visit at some point in their life.The Statue of Liberty was actually not something that a United States citizen created, nor was she even built in the United States. The Statue of Liberty was actually a gift that was given to the United States from France. It was a gift that was to symbolize the friendship that existed between France and the United States. The statue was dedicated in October of 1886. She then became a National Monument in 1924. The Statue of Liberty was then restored in July of 1986 for her 100th birthday.
The Statue of Liberty is located on an island by the name of Liberty Island, located just off the coast of New York City. This was the place that many immigrants to the United States used to pass through, making the Statue of Liberty one of the first pieces of the United States that these immigrants would see. This made the statue a symbol of friendship from France and a symbol of freedom and hope. Today, many people across the country visit the statue each year.
Design & Construction
The Statue of Liberty was designed by a French man by the name of Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi. The statue was originally slotted for completion in the year 1876 to be able to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the United States becoming its own independent country. Lack of proper funding, however, caused the project to take longer than intended. While France was primarily responsible for the building and assembling the Statue of Liberty herself, the United States was in charge of building the pedestal on which she would rest for her entire existence.The construction of the Statue of Liberty was difficult. The sculptor required the help of an engineer to create the statue so that she was structurally sound. Creating a statue of that size and from that material proved to be quite difficult. But with the collaboration with the engineer and a man by the name of Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel, the creator of the Eiffel Tower, Bartholdi was able to complete the statue in July of 1884. She was then shipped to the United States in 350 individual pieces that were packaged into 214 crates. She arrived in the United States in June of 1885. The pedestal was finally able be started in August of 1885 and completed in April of 1886. She was then assembled in time for her dedication in October of 1886.