The Statue of Liberty

Lesson 3: The Statue of Liberty
The French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi was assigned to design and complete a sculpture Liberty Enlightening the World within 1876, so that it could be a gift for the Americans on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the American Declaration of Independence. The statue was a joint venture between the USA and France. The French people built the statue and assemble it in the States, and the people of the USA built 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 completed the Statue in July 1884. They sent it to New York by the French warship 'Isere' in 1885. While transporting the statue, it was split up into 350 pieces and packed in 214 crates.
It took four months to put the Statue together and place it on the pedestal. Thousands of people saw the unveiling ceremony of the Statue of Liberty on 28 October 1886.
The Freedom that the Statue stands for is not stationary. The broken chain wrapped around her feet, sticking out 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 ligh