Statue of Liberty
Location: USA

Statue of Liberty, New York City, USA
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Statue of Liberty (Statue de la Liberté) is one of the most famous statues in the world and the most recognisable icon of the United States. It is a statue of a lady holding a torch with seven pointed spikes representing the seven seas. On her other hand is a tablet with the text JULY IV MDCCLXXVI, the date 4 July, 1776, the date of the United States Declaration of Independence. The formal name of the Statue of Liberty is Liberty Enlightening the World (La liberté éclairant le monde).

The Statue of Liberty is 46.5m tall. It stands on a stonework pedestal, which sits atop an eleven-pointed star base. The pedestal and base together add another 46.9m to the overall height. It stands on its own island, Liberty Island, in the mouth of the Hudson River, as one enters New York Harbour, welcoming arriving immigrants, visitors, and returning citizens.

The Statue of Liberty is a gift of the people of France to the United States in 1886, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the independence of the United States of America. The idea to present a gift to the United States was spearheaded by a French politician by the name of Édouard René Lefèvre de Laboulaye. The statue was sculptored by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, and the internal structure engineered by Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, who also designed the Eiffel Tower.

Initially Bartholdi had wanted to built a grand statue. A model of it, built in 1870, stands today in the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris. However, after he visited Egypt, Bartholdi's ambition grew from grand to colossal. To finance such a massive project, a fund raising was held. They even managed to make it a joint effort, with the American people building the base, while the French people provide the statue. The fund raising on the American side was slow going until publisher Joseph Pulitzer, who created the Pulitzer prize, provided visibility to the project in his newspaper, The World.

The French completed building the Statue in July 1884, but at that time, the Americans had not even started work on the pedestal. It only got started on 5 August, 1884, but was stopped through lack of funds. The Statue arrived in New York on 17 June, 1885, and stayed in crates for 11 months while waiting for the pedestal to be completed. After another fund campaign from Joseph Pulitzer, work on the pedestal got started again, and it was finally finished on 22 April, 1886.

The Statue of Liberty was dedicated on 28 October, 1886 by President Grover Cleveland. In 1984 the Statue of Liberty was recognised by Unesco as a World Heritage Site.

Where in the world is the Statue of Liberty?

How to go to Statue of Liberty?

Since the September 11 attack on New York, access to the Statue of Liberty has remained closed. To visit the museum and ten-storey pedestal, visitors must has a "Monument Access Pass" which has to be booked two days in advance, and picked up before boarding the ferry. Visiting Liberty Island is also strictly controlled.