Statue of Liberty
The French Sculptor Fredic Auguste Bartholdi was assigned to design and complete a sculpture within 1876, so that it could be a gift for the Americans on the occasion of celebrating the hundred years of the American Declaration of Independence. The statue was joint venture between the USA and France. The French people would build the statue and assemble it in the States, and the people of the USA were to build the pedestal for the statue.
Raising money for the pedestal was completed in August 1885. The construction of the pedestal was finished in April 1886. In the meantime, France completed the Statue in July 1884. They sent it to New York on board the French war ship ‘Isere’ in 1885. While transporting the statue, it was split up into 350 individual pieces and packed in 214 crates.
It took four months to put the Statue together and place it on the pedestal. Thousands of people saw the unveiling ceremony of the Statue of Liberty on October 28th 1886. It was centennial gift ten years late.
The Freedom that the Statue stands for is not stationary. The broken chain wrapped around here feet, protruding from the bottom of her robe, symbolizes her free forward movement, enlightening the world with her torch, free from oppression and slavery.
The statue’s original torch was the first part constructed in 1876. It was replaced by a new copper torch covered in 24K gold leaf in 1984. The torch is lighted by flood light at night. The original torch is currently located in the lobby of the monument. Access to the torch has been closed since 1916.
From October 28, 2011, on her 125th anniversary, the Statue of Liberty was named “Liberty Enlightening the World Wide Web”. The credit goes to a series of new web cams placed around her torch. Several amazing views will be just a click of a mouse away. On clear days, three cameras provide unobstructed scenes and views. Two cameras provide an ultra wide-angle interactive view of the famous golden torch. The remaining camera looks downwards towards the crown of the Statue of Liberty, her face, the tablet she is holding from your computer or smart phone. So a person can have access to the web cam’s live feed of the Statue of Liberty from anywhere in the world.