Towering over Liberty Island in New York, the Statue of Liberty is recognized around the world as a symbol of the United States. French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi designed the Statue of Liberty, which was a gift from France to the United States.
Fast Facts About the Statue of Liberty:
- Construction began in France in 1875.
- Ten years later in 1885, a French transport ship carried the statue to New York in 214 crates holding 350 separate pieces.
- Height: 151 feet 1 inch; Total height on pedestal: 305 feet 1 inch.
- Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel used an internal skeleton, a flexible engineering approach that allows the statue to sway several inches in strong winds.
- Weight of statue: 156 tons (31 tons of copper attached to 125 tons of framework).
- Liberty's Crown has 25 windows and 7 rays.
- Liberty's head is 10 feet wide; each eye is 2 1/2 feet wide; her nose is 4 1/2 feet long; her mouth is 3 feet wide.
The Statue of Liberty was assembled on a pedestal designed by American architect Richard Morris Hunt. The statue and pedestal were officially completed and dedicated by President Grover Cleveland on October 28, 1886.
