France's gift of the Statue of Liberty to the United States serves as a testament to the enduring bond between the two nations and their shared commitment to liberty and democracy.
In the heart of New York Harbor stands a symbol of freedom and democracy, the Statue of Liberty. A towering figure, she holds her torch high, guiding millions of immigrants who sought a new beginning in the United States. However, many are unaware of the statue's origins and the remarkable story of how France gifted this iconic monument to the United States.
A Symbol of Friendship, The Statue of Liberty, officially known as "Liberty Enlightening the World," was a gift from the people of France to the people of the United States. It was intended to commemorate the Franco-American alliance and to celebrate the centennial of American independence. The idea for the statue was conceived by French politician and abolitionist Édouard de Laboulaye, who envisioned it as a symbol of liberty and friendship between the two nations.
The task of designing the statue fell to the French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi. He created a monumental neoclassical sculpture depicting a robed female figure holding a torch in one hand and a tablet in the other, upon which the date of American independence, July 4, 1776, is inscribed. The statue was made of copper sheets, carefully hammered into shape and assembled on a framework designed by Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, the engineer behind the Eiffel Tower.
After several years of planning and construction, the Statue of Liberty was completed in France in 1884. In 1885, it was disassembled into 350 individual pieces and shipped to the United States. The arrival of the statue in New York City, was met with great anticipation and excitement. On October 28, 1886, in a grand ceremony attended by thousands of people, the Statue of Liberty was unveiled on Bedloe's Island (now Liberty Island).
