the statue of liberty wasa gift from france to usa..my question...?

Question

how did it end up there? i mean, do they built it there, or in france, and if in france, how did they transport it..it's so huge..? and who was the woman anyway? why did it end up in new york, not some place else in the states?

Answer 1

She welcomes immigrants, most of whom entered via NY at the time. She was to be a huge symbol of American freedom-definately good to see on your way in for the first time, very comforting.

Little known fact: the original design was a black woman breaking the chains of slavery, but that was deemed unacceptable.

Answer 2

It was shipped in pieces, and assembled here, New York Harbor was probably the most convenient place. The lady was liberty. You should google the story, I heard one that it was originally going to be France's "Trojan horse" used against the Americans. Not sur that thats true or not but there are alottt of stories to be told about it.

Answer 3

It was originally supposed to be a gift to Egypt and placed at the entrance to the Suez canal...but they didn't want it. Since money was already invested, they shifted gears and the French government decided to gift it to the US in honor of our centennial (so they were off a few by the time it was done).

As to who she is, she was supposed to be the new Colossus of Rhodes.The artist, Bartholdi, described his inspiration as, "She was patterned after the Roman goddess Libertas, modified to resemble a robed Egyptian peasant, a fallaha, with light beaming out from both a headband and a torch thrust dramatically upward into the skies."

Answer 4

I've recently seen an old photo of the statue being built and the perspective of it was from a french street. It looks really odd being so big and in a different place, the photo doesn't look real but it is!

Answer 5

It was assembled in France, and then dissasembled. It was sent to America in pieces and then re-assembled on Liberty Island.

Answer 6

It was built in France. Can you say "Ship"?
NY was always an immigration port.
Ever heard of Ellis Island?

Answer 7

It was carried over here by helicopter and gently dropped down onto the specially prepared foundation. Then it was fastened by 1,775 titanium nuts and 1 gold nut. There was a Frenchman caught in the left breast and no one found him until 50 later when they were changing her bra. He was still alive but considerably underweight for a French pervert.

Answer 8

They moved it by ship and re-assembled it in the harbor, the rest is written here.

Answer 9

Liberty Enlightening the World (French: La liberté éclairant le monde), known more commonly as the Statue of Liberty (Statue de la Liberté), is a colossal statue given to the United States by France in 1886, standing at Liberty Island, in the mouth of the Hudson River in New York Harbor as a welcome to all visitors, immigrants, and returning Americans. The copper statue, dedicated on October 28, 1886, commemorates the centennial of the United States and is a gesture of friendship between the two nations. The sculptor was Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, a famous freemason. Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, the designer of the Eiffel Tower, engineered the internal structure. Eugène Viollet-le-Duc was responsible for the choice of copper in the statue's construction and adoption of the Repoussé technique.

The statue depicts a woman standing upright, dressed in a flowing robe and a seven point spiked crown representing the Seven Seas, holding a stone tablet close to her body in her left hand and a flaming torch high in her right hand. The statue is made of pure copper on a framework of steel (originally puddled iron) with the exception of the flame of the torch, which is coated in gold leaf. It stands atop a rectangular stonework pedestal, itself on an irregular eleven-pointed star foundation. The statue is 151 feet (46 meters) and one inch tall, with the foundation adding another 154 feet (46.9 meters). The tablet contains the text "JULY IV MDCCLXXVI" (July 4, 1776) commemorating the date of the United States Declaration of Independence. The interior of the pedestal contains a bronze plaque inscribed with the poem "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus. (It has never been engraved on the exterior of the pedestal, despite such depictions in editorial cartoons.

Worldwide, the Statue of Liberty is one of the most recognizable icons of the United States, and, in a more general sense, represents liberty and escape from oppression. The Statue of Liberty was, from 1886 until the jet age, often one of the first glimpses of the United States for millions of immigrants after ocean voyages from Europe. In terms of visual impact, the Statue of Liberty appears to draw inspiration from il Sancarlone or the Colossus of Rhodes. The statue is a central part of Statue of Liberty National Monument and is administered by the National Park Service.

Discussions in France over a suitable gift to the United States to mark the Centennial of the American Declaration of Independence were headed by the politician and sympathetic writer of the history of the United States, Édouard René Lefèvre de Laboulaye. French sculptor Marie Pierre was commissioned to design a sculpture with the year 1876 in mind for completion. The idea for the commemorative gift then grew out of the political turmoil which was shaking France at the time. The French Third Republic was still considered as a "temporary" arrangement by many, who wished a return to monarchism, or to some form of constitutional authoritarianism which they had known under Napoleon. The idea of giving a colossal representation of republican virtues to a "sister" republic across the sea served as a focus for the republican cause against other politicians.


Frédéric BartholdiVarious sources cite different models for the face of the statue. One indicated the then-recently widowed Isabella Eugenie Boyer, the wife of Isaac Singer, the sewing-machine industrialist. "She was rid of the uncouth presence of her husband, who had left her with only his most socially desirable attributes: his fortune and... his children. She was, from the beginning of her career in Paris, a well-known figure. As the good-looking French widow of an American industrialist she was called upon to be Bartholdi's model for the Statue of Liberty." Another source believed that the "stern face" belonged to Bartholdi's mother, Charlotte Bartholdi (1801-1891), with whom he was very close. National Geographic magazine also pointed to his mother, noting that Bartholdi never denied nor explained the resemblance. The first model, on a small scale, was built in 1870. This first statue is now in the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris.

While in a visit to Egypt that was to shift his artistic perspective from simply grand to colossal, Bartholdi was inspired by the project of Suez Canal which was being undertaken by Count Ferdinand de Lesseps, who later became a lifelong friend of his. He envisioned a giant lighthouse standing at the entrance to Suez Canal and drew plans for it. It would be patterned after the Roman goddess Libertas, modified to resemble a robed Egyptian peasant, a fallaha, with light beaming out from both a headband and a torch thrust dramatically upward into the skies. Bartholdi presented his plans to the Egyptian Khediev, Isma'il Pasha, in 1867 and, with revisions, again in 1869, but the project was never commissioned.

It was agreed upon that in a joint effort the American people were to build the base, and the French people were responsible for the Statue and its assembly in the United States. However, lack of funds was a problem on both sides of the Atlantic. In France, public fees, various forms of entertainment, and a lottery were among the methods used to raise the 2,250,000 francs. In the United States, benefit theatrical events, art exhibitions, auctions and prize fights assisted in providing needed funds. Meanwhile in France, Bartholdi required the assistance of an engineer to address structural issues associated with designing such a colossal copper sculpture. Gustave Eiffel (designer of the Eiffel Tower) was commissioned to design the massive iron pylon and secondary skeletal framework which allows the Statue's copper skin to move independently yet stand upright. Eiffel delegated the detailed work to his trusted structural engineer, Maurice Koechlin.

On June 30, 1878, at the Paris Exposition, the completed head of the statue was showcased in the garden of the Trocadéro palace, while other pieces were on display in the Champs de Mars.

Back in America, the site, authorized in New York Harbor by Act of Congress, 1877, was selected by General William Tecumseh Sherman, who settled on Bartholdi's own choice, then known as Bedloe's Island, where there was already an early 19th century star-shaped fortification. United States Minister to France Levi Parsons Morton hammered the first nail in the construction of the statue.


Bartholdi's design patentOn February 18, 1879, Bartholdi was granted a design patent, U.S. Patent D11023 , on "a statue representing Liberty enlightening the world, the same consisting, essentially, of the draped female figure, with one arm upraised, bearing a torch, and while the other holds an inscribed tablet, and having upon the head a diadem, substantially as set forth." The patent described the head as having "classical, yet severe and calm, features," noted that the body is "thrown slightly over to the left so as to gravitate upon the left leg, the whole figure thus being in equilibrium," and covered representations in "any manner known to the glyptic art in the form of a statue or statuette, or in alto-relievo or bass-relief, in metal, stone, terra-cotta, plaster-of-paris, or other plastic composition."

Fundraising for the pedestal, led by William M. Evarts, was going slowly, so Hungarian-born publisher Joseph Pulitzer (who established the Pulitzer Prize) opened up the editorial pages of his newspaper, The World, to support the fund raising effort. Pulitzer used his newspaper to criticize both the rich, who had failed to finance the pedestal construction, and the middle class who were content to rely upon the wealthy to provide the funds[citation needed]. Pulitzer's campaign of harsh criticism was successful in motivating the people of America to donate. (It also promoted his newspaper, which purportedly added about 50,000 subscribers in the course of the statue campaign effort.)

Financing for the pedestal, designed by American architect Richard Morris Hunt, was completed in August 1884. The cornerstone was laid on August 5, and pedestal construction was finished on April 22, 1886. When the last stone of the pedestal was swung into place the masons reached into their pockets and showered into the mortar a collection of silver coins.

Built into the pedestal's massive masonry are two sets of four iron girders, connected by iron tie beams that are carried up to become part of Eiffel's framework for the statue itself. Thus Liberty is integral with her pedestal.

The Statue was completed in France in July, 1884 and arrived in New York Harbor on June 17, 1885 on board the French frigate Isère. To prepare for transit, the Statue was reduced to 350 individual pieces and packed in 214 crates. (The right arm and the torch, which were completed earlier, had been exhibited at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1876, and thereafter at Madison Square in New York City.) The Statue was re-assembled on her new pedestal in four months' time. On October 28, 1886, the Statue of Liberty was dedicated by President Grover Cleveland in front of thousands of spectators. (Ironically, it was Cleveland who, as Governor of the State of New York, had earlier vetoed a bill by the New York legislature to contribute $50,000 to the building of the pedestal.) In any event, she was a centennial gift ten years belated.

The Statue of Liberty functioned as an actual lighthouse from 1886 to 1902 .At that time the U.S. Lighthouse board was responsible for its operation. In fact there was a lighthouse keeper and the electric light could be seen for 24 miles (39 km) at sea. There was an electric plant on the island to generate power for the light.

In 1916, the Black Tom Explosion caused $100,000 worth of damage to the statue, embedding shrapnel and eventually leading to the closing of the torch to visitors. The same year, Gutzon Borglum, sculptor of Mount Rushmore, modified the original copper torch by cutting away most of the copper in the flame, retrofitting glass panes and installing an internal light[citation needed]. After these modifications, the torch severely leaked rainwater and snowmelt, accelerating corrosion inside the statue. President Franklin D. Roosevelt rededicated the Statue of Liberty on its 50th anniversary (October 28, 1936).

As with all historic areas administered by the National Park Service, Statue of Liberty National Monument, along with Ellis Island and Liberty Island, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966.
In 1984, the Statue of Liberty was added to the World Heritage List.