In building a democratic friendship between the United State of America and France in 1865, a statue of liberty was proposed by Edouard de Laboulaye to commemorate the relationship.
The project with the two countries was designed in time for the centennial of the Declaration of Independence in 1876 by Frederic Auguste Bartholdi who created the statue itself out of sheets of hammered copper, while Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel, the man behind the famed Eiffel tower, designed the steel framework for the statue.
After the statue was given to America which was erected atop an American-designed pedestal that contains exhibits on the monument history which include the original 1886 torch which is on a small island in Upper New York Bay, now known as Liberty Island, and dedicated by President Grover Cleveland in 1886.
The statue stands 305 feet (93 meters’), the torch is measured 29 feet (8.8 meters’) from the flame tip to the bottom of the handle and is accessible via a 42-foot (12.8 meter). The plaque at the entrance of the pedestal is inscribed with a sonnet, The New Colossus written by Emma Lazarus in 1883, which was written to help raise money for the pedestal.
Britannica noted that the statue was first administered by the U.S. Lighthouse Board, as the illuminated torch was considered a navigational aid. Because Fort wood was still an operational Army post, responsibility for the maintenance and operation of the statue was transferred in 1901 to the War Department. It was declared a national monument in 1924 and in 1933 the administration of the statue was placed under the National Park Service.
OLUWASEUN AFOLABI
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