Colorized

It Took It Quite A While (And A Lot Of Money) To Get It Here

The Statue of Liberty came to sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi in a dream. In his fantasy he was on a ship drifting towards the shores of New York City where he was being welcomed by the very spirit of liberty. It didn't take long for Bartholdi to draft up a statue based on his dream, but as grand as his design was Americans weren't interested in paying for it. The French, however, felt that it would be the perfect way to congratulate America on 100 years as a nation.

Constructed in France and presented to Ambassador Levi Morton on July 4, 1884, at a ceremony in Paris, this was only the beginning of Lady Liberty's life. After France agreed to pay for her trip across the Atlantic the statue stayed put in Paris while a pedestal was constructed off the shores of Manhattan.

Photos of the Statue of Liberty are grand no matter which way you slice it, but to see its construction in full color, long before it was planted in the waters surrounding the Big Apple, is a true sight to behold, and one that shows the true beauty of this amazing gift.

source: jecini

Under the watchful eye of Bartholdi, a group of craftsmen began working in earnest on the Statue of Liberty in 1876. The crew didn't build the statue as one giant piece, and instead treated the statue as sections of an installation. The first section completed in 1876 was the arm holding the torch and it was shown at that years Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia.

It would be another two years before the head and shoulders were completed. They were premiered at the Paris Universal Exposition. At the time of her construction the statue was a copper color, not the iconic green that we're used to today. No matter the color, Lady Liberty is imposing and breathtaking at 305 feet in height.

Expensive taste

source: AP

As was said previously, Americans didn't want to pay for the Statue of Liberty, so the French decided to give it to the United States as a gift. Still, someone had to pay for it. The French took up a collection of 2,250,000 francs, which equaled $250,000 American at the time. Thanks to inflation that's millions of dollars today. It's absolutely wild to think that France was so set on giving America a gift that they dropped such major coin, but they really wanted to offer their congratulations.

At the end of the day both France and America took part in fundraisers to make enough money for the construction, shipping, and reconstruction of the statue, but it took much longer than anyone anticipated. That being said, it's nice to see a couple of countries getting along in the name of solidarity, kindness, an end to slavery, and aesthetically pleasing statues.

Skin of copper, skeleton of iron

source: AP

While some of the statue was constructed in sections, the biggest undertaking was building Lady Liberty's body. To make a 305 foot woman Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel of the Eiffel Tower fame created a kind of skeleton out of iron pylon and steel, which Bartholdi wrapped in hand-hammered copper. Eiffel's skeleton allowed for the skin to live independently of the iron and steel, a necessary condition to make sure that the statue could withstand the strong winds of the New York Harbor.

Every piece of the statue features this iron and steel webbing: the hands, the feet, the face, they're all filled with Eiffel's skeleton. In 1884, the statue was finally completed in France and dedicated to America in the presence of Ambassador Levi Morton. After the dedication it was time to disassemble the statue and send her across the ocean.

Lady Liberty almost didn't make it to U.S. shores

source: AP

After the Statue was taken apart in Paris, she was packed into 214 crates and sent to America on the steam-and-sail gunboat Isère under the care of 19-year-old French lieutenant, Rodolphe Victor de Drambour, so no pressure or anything. Drambour had to cut open sections of the ship because none of the hatches on the Isère were big enough to fit the crates. Once that was taken care of the ship took a dangerous trip across the Atlantic into a 72 hour storm that threw the pieces of the statue around their hold and threatened to sink the ship. It's honestly shocking that the statue made it over in one piece, or 200 plus pieces if you want to look at it that way.

After making it through the storm, the then-20-year-old Drambour deposited the statue off Sandy Hook on June 17, 1885, and was welcomed by the New York World, the New York Yacht Club, the U. S. Fleet, before he was treated to a spectacular dinner at the Hoffman House.

Party in the U.S.A.

source: national archives

Reassembly took another four years to complete, with workers putting the statue together piece by piece around the clock before mounting it on its pedestal. President Grover Cleveland officially dedicated the Statue of Liberty on October 28, 1886. In 1892, the federal immigration station on Ellis Island opened. Between 1892 and 1954, Lady Liberty welcomed nearly 12 million immigrants as they entered the United States of America, and it's all thanks to a Frenchman and his dream.

The Statue of Liberty In Paris, France, Before Being Brought To The U.S. 1886 (Colorized)

It Took It Quite A While (And A Lot Of Money) To Get It Here

Expensive taste

Skin of copper, skeleton of iron

Lady Liberty almost didn't make it to U.S. shores

Party in the U.S.A.