The Statue of Liberty

The French Sculptor Frederic Augusta Bartholdi was assigned to design and complete a sculpture within 1876, so that it could be a gift for the Americans on the occasion of celebrating the hundred years of the American Declaration of Independence. The statue was a joint venture between the USA and France. The France people would the build the statue and assemble it in the statue, and the people of the USA were to build the pedestal for the statue.

Raising money for the pedestal was completed in August 1885. The construction of the pedestal was finished in April 1886. In the meantime, France war ship 'Isere' in 1885. While transporting the statue, it was split up into 350 individual pieces and packed in 214 crates.

It took four month to put the Statue together and place it on the pedestal. Thousands of people saw the unveiling ceremony of the Statue of Liberty on October 28th 1886. It was centennial gift ten years late.

The Freedom that the Statue stand for is not stationary. The broken chain wrapped around her feet, protruding from the bottom of her robe, symbolizes her free forward movement, enlightening the world with her torch, free from oppression and slavery.

The Statue's original torch was the first part constructed in 1876. It was replaced by a new copper torch covered in 24K gold leaf in 1984. The torch is lighted by flood light at night. The original torch is currently located in the lobby of the monument. Access to the torch has been closed since 1916.

From October 28, 2011, on her 125th anniversary, the Statue of Liberty was named "Liberty Enlightening the World Wide Web". The credit goes to a series of new web came placed around her torch. Several amazing view will be just a click of a mouse away. On clear days, three cameras provide unobstructed scenes and views. Two cameras provide an ultra wide-angle interactive view of the famous golden torch. The remaining camera look downwards towards the crown of The Statue of Liberty, her face, the tablet she is holding from your computer or smart phone. So a person can have access to the web cam's live feed of The Statue of Liberty from anywhere in the world.