At the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century, the Statue of Liberty marked the entrance to America for many. From his pedestal on Liberty Island in New York, he welcomed ships from the Old Continent with the promise of a better life.
Surely you have seen this scene so many times on the screen, you can imagine the torch appearing before thousands of restless and hopeful eyes, serving as the first image of an unknown country ... Symbol of freedom and hope, a new home full of opportunities .
But even today it is the most iconic monument in New York, the enigmatic Lady Liberty still hides many details and stories. We invite you to know a little better with these 10 curiosities about the Statue of Liberty!
Trivia of the Statue of Liberty
1.- The original name of the statue is Freedom illuminating the world.
Today we all know it as Statue of Liberty or Statue of Liberty, but the original name of the statue is somewhat longer and grandiose: Liberty Enlightening the World, or Freedom enlightening the world.
2.- It was built in Paris for eight years and arrived in New York in 214 boxes.
The designer of the statue was the Frenchman Auguste Bartholdi, and he and his team built it in Paris for eight years (from 1876 to 1884). On July 4, 1884, they officially gave it to the United States, although it was in 1885 when it was dismantled, packed in 214 boxes and shipped to the other side of the Atlantic.
3.- Lady Liberty celebrates her birthday on October 28th.
Lady Liberty arrived in New York in 1885, but she still had to build the pedestal where she would rise. The official inauguration of the Statue of Liberty took place on October 28, 1886, with President Grover Cleveland and sculptor Auguste Bartholdi present. Since then, the statue celebrates its birthday every 28 October.
4.- The statue could have been built in Central Park.
The first time Bartholdi visited New York in 1871, he shuffled Central Park and Prospect Park as possible homes for the Statue of Liberty. Finally settled on the island Bedloe's Island (today, Liberty Island) because, thanks to the location near the port, the statue would be the first thing that immigrants would see when arriving in the New World.
5.- Gustave Eiffel designed the entrails of the statue.
Auguste Bartholdi commissioned the design of the frame of the interior of the statue to the engineer Gustave Eiffel, the same that a few years later would build the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
6.-The Statue of Liberty was a lighthouse.
It had been the initial idea of Bartholdi since he imagined his great lady, and in 1886 the statue became a lighthouse. But neither the location nor the technology was optimal and the light was barely visible, so in 1902 the statue returned to its original state of sculpture.
7.-The greenish color is due to oxidation.
Do you imagine the Statue of Liberty without its characteristic blue-green color? Impossible, right? The color is due to the oxidation of the copper patina that covers the statue, and in 1906 the American Congress proposed to destine thousands of dollars to repaint it so that it would shine like the first day. The popular opposition was so strong, that in the end it was not painted. The torch you see today (which replaced the original in 1986) shines because it is covered in gold.
8.- The torch has not opened to the public since 1916.
On July 30, 1916, during the First World War, the Germans attacked an island near Liberty Island where the Allies kept ammunition. The explosion, known as the Black Tom explosion, caused some fragments to be fired all over the bay and hit the Statue of Liberty, damaging the torch. Since then, the torch has been closed to the public. The most you can do is climb to the crown of the statue ... or see the views from the torch using this live webcam.
9.- The feet of the Statue of Liberty.
From her position on the pedestal, we can not see Lady Liberty's feet. But they are not hidden, but appear beneath the tunic on broken chains, symbolizing freedom.
10.- A gift from France with crowdfunding included.
Surely you have heard that the Statue of Liberty was a brotherly gift from France to the United States, but the story is a little more complicated. Auguste Bartholdi dreamed of building a huge woman-shaped lighthouse that would illuminate the entrance to the Suez Canal in Egypt.
The plans did not go ahead, so he decided to try in the United States, but it was not easy to convince the Americans of the project. It took years to raise funds to build the Statue of Liberty, and for a long time New Yorkers were not enthusiastic about donating money to build the pedestal.
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@keylicdf
Beautiful writeup!Thanks for sharing.