Statue of Liberty

Statue of Liberty

Liberty Island, New York, USA

Liberty Enlightening the World, commonly known as the Statue of Liberty, was presented to the United States by the people of France in 1886. Standing on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, it welcomes visitors, immigrants, and returning Americans. The copper-clad statue, dedicated on October 28, 1886, commemorates the centennial of the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence and is a gesture of friendship from France to the United States.

Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi sculpted the statue and obtained a U.S. patent for its structure. Alexandre Gustave Eiffel (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, where a malleable metal is hammered on the reverse side. The statue is of a robed woman holding a torch, and is made of a sheeting of pure copper, hung on a framework of steel (originally puddled iron) with the exception of the flame of the torch, which is coated in gold leaf (originally made of copper and later altered to hold glass panes.) It stands atop a rectangular stonework pedestal with a foundation in the shape of an irregular eleven-pointed star.

The statue is 151 ft (46 m) tall, but with the pedestal and foundation, it is 305 ft (93 m) tall. Worldwide, the Statue of Liberty is one of the most recognizable icons of the United States,and, more generally, represents liberty and escape from oppression.