Specifications and technical requirements

Art

Statue of Liberty Origins

The Statue of Liberty was a gift from France to commemorate the 100 years of freedom since America signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It was also created to salute the two countries' collaboration during the Revolutionary War. France commissioned sculptor Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi to create a unique sculpture or monument so it could be completed by 1876. However, funding was short in both countries. The United States had agreed to fund the pedestal and it was finally funded in late 1885 and completed by the spring of 1886. Meanwhile, the French people were responsible for the statue and its assembly once it got to the U.S. In 1884, the statue was finished in France, and it arrived in the United States in 1885, packed in hundreds of wooden crates. It took another four months to build her on top of the finished pedestal.

The statue is constructed of a huge iron framework or "skeleton" inside the work, which was required to hold the thin copper body steady and yet be able to move independently of the framework. (in 1984, the statue was renovated and updated, and the framework is now made of steel). The framework was constructed and engineered by the same man who built the Eiffel Tower, Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel. The outer layer of the statue is copper, which accounts for the weathered blue-green patina that covers the statue today, as copper turns this color as it ages and is affected by the elements. The torch's flame is covered in gold leaf, which was also added in 1984, and unveiled in 1986 at the statue's 100-year-old birthday celebration. The statue was finally dedicated on October 28, 1886. It stands on a pedestal made of granite that is located inside the courtyard of a seventeenth century fort, Fort Wood, which was used during the War of 1812. The Statue of Liberty is an enduring symbol of freedom around the world, and it illustrates this country's ties to France and French artists..