Statue of Liberty
Liberty Enlightening the World, known more commonly as the Statue of Liberty, is a colossal statue given to the United States by the Paris based Union Franco-Américaine (Franco-American Union) in 1876, standing at Liberty Island, in the mouth of the Hudson River in New York Harbor as a welcome to all visitors, immigrants, and returning Americans. The copper statue, dedicated on October 28, 1886, commemorates the centennial of the United States and is a gesture of friendship between the two nations. The sculptor was Frederic Auguste Bartholdi. Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, the designer of the Eiffel Tower, engineered the internal structure. Eugène Viollet-le-Duc was responsible for the choice of copper in the statue's construction and adoption of the Repoussé technique.
The statue depicts a woman, standing upright, dressed in a flowing robe and a seven point spiked crown representing the Seven Seas, holding a stone tablet close to her body in her left hand and a flaming torch high in her right hand. The statue is made of pure copper on a framework of steel (originally puddled iron) with the exception of the flame of the torch, which is coated in gold leaf. It stands atop a rectangular stonework pedestal, itself on an irregular eleven-pointed star foundation. The statue is 151 feet and one inch tall, with the foundation adding another 154 feet. The tablet contains the text “JULY IV MDCCLXXVI” (July 4, 1776) commemorating the date of the United States Declaration of Independence. The interior of the pedestal contains a bronze plaque inscribed with the poem “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus.
The Statue of Liberty is one of the most recognizable icons of the U.S. worldwide, and, in a more general sense, represents liberty and escape from oppression. The Statue of Liberty was, from 1886 until the jet age, often one of the first glimpses of the United States for millions of immigrants after ocean voyages from Europe. In terms of visual impact, the Statue of Liberty appears to draw inspiration from il Sancarlone or the Colossus of Rhodes. The statue is a central part of Statue of Liberty National Monument and is administered by the National Park Service.
The broken shackles lying at Lady Liberty's feet signify liberation from oppression and tyranny. The USIA states that the seven spikes in the crown represent the seven seas and seven continents. As the statue's name indicates, the torch signifies enlightenment. The tablet in her hand shows the date of the nation's birth (July 4, 1776).
The Statue of Liberty quickly became a popular icon, featured in scores of posters, pictures, motion pictures, and books. A 1911 O. Henry story relates a fanciful conversation between “Mrs. Liberty” and another statue; it figured in 1918 Liberty Loan posters. During the 1940s and 1950s, pulp Science Fiction magazines featured Lady Liberty surrounded by ruins or by the sediments of the ages. It has been in dozens of motion pictures, such as the 1942 Alfred Hitchcock movie Saboteur, which featured a climactic confrontation at the statue. In the 1989 film, Ghostbusters 2, the ghostbusters use positively charged slime to bring the Statue of Liberty to life in order to help defeat the evil Vigo. Half submerged in the sand, the Statue provided the apocalyptic revelation at the end of Planet of the Apes. It was the subject of a 1978 University of Wisconsin-Madison prank in which Lady Liberty appeared to be standing submerged in a local lake. It has appeared on New York and New Jersey license plates, and is the mascot for the WNBA's New York Liberty. It was the subject of magician David Copperfield's largest vanishing act.
The interior of the statue used to be open to visitors. They would arrive by ferry and could climb the circular single-file stairs (limited by the available space) inside the metallic statue, exposed to the sun out in the harbor (the interior reaching extreme temperatures, particularly in summer months), and about 30 people at a time could fit up into her crown. This provided a broad view of New York Harbor (she faces the ocean, and France) through 25 windows, the largest approximately 18'' (46 cm) in height. The view did not, therefore, include the skyline of New York City. The wait outside regularly exceeded 3 hours, excluding the wait for ferries and ferry tickets.
Liberty Island closed on September 11, 2001; the islands reopened in December, and the statue itself reopened on August 3, 2004. Currently, the museum and ten-story pedestal are open for visitation. The interior of the statue remains closed, although a glass ceiling in the pedestal allows for views of Eiffel's iron framework.
Visitors to Liberty Island and the Statue are currently subject to restrictions, including personal searches similar to the security found in airports.
That was not the first time, however, that the Statue of Liberty had been threatened by terrorism. On February 18, 1965, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced it had uncovered a plot by three commandos from the Black Liberation Front, who were connected to Cuba, and a female co-conspirator from Montreal seeking independence for Quebec from Canada, who were sent to destroy the statue and at least two other national shrines - the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia and the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C.
In June 2006, a bill, S. 3597, was proposed in Congress which, if approved, could re-open the crown and interior of the Statue of Liberty to visitors. It will probably be voted on by mid-2007.
On August 9, 2006 National Park Service Director Fran Mainella, in a letter to Congressman Anthony Weiner of New York stated that the crown and interior of the statue would remain closed indefinitely. The letter stated that “the current access patterns reflect a responsible management strategy in the best interests of all our visitors.”.
Source: