What does the Statue of Liberty mean?

One of the symbols of the United States is the Statue of Liberty. Movies and television have taken care of that and anyone who goes to New York includes his visit in the tourist itinerary. If you don't know much about her, I'll tell you that she has an interesting story, so today we are going to get to know her.

First, although we all know her as the Statue of Liberty, the real name is Freedom lighting the world.

The statue of Liberty

Is located on Liberty Island, south of Manhattan Island, next to the mouth of the Hudson River and not far from the famous Ellis Island. It is a gift from the government of France to the government of the United States on the first centenary of the independence of the northern country.

The United States became independent from Great Britain in 1776 and then entered the Civil War, an internal struggle that bled the country dry between 1861 and 1865. At that time, the French politician and jurist Eduardo Laboulaye, deputy and senator of the Third Republic, had the idea of ​​deepening rapprochement with the United States by offering it a statue.

The chosen sculptor was the Alsatian Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, and although the statue had to be ready in 1876 not everything was so easy. France went to war with Prussia, American sympathies for the Germans did not sit well, the Third Republic also had internal problems, the monarchy threatened to return... But even so, the sculptor traveled to the United States in 1871 and chose the small island where the magnificent statue was to stand, in addition to joining then-President Grant.

clearly the statue has influences of Greek art and today it is considered that the sculptor was inspired by the Greek goddess Hecate to give her Liberty a face and figure. The most particular features of the face have also raised many questions. Is she the girlfriend of the millionaire inventor Issac Singer, is she the sculptor's mother, or are there several women in a classic face? Everything is possible.

On the other hand Bartholdi had worked on the construction of the Suez Canal, in Egypt, and I already had some designs for a lighthouse-statue that was never approved. Apparently some of that crept into his original designs for the play in New York, a design in which he left behind the classic and typical Phrygian cap and replaced it with a diadem of sun rays.

Between the respective governments they had established that the United States would make the base of the monument and France the statue and subsequent assembly. But economic problems were always present. In France, an organization was founded to raise funds, an organization that used all the means of the time to raise money, and the same in the United States.

The statue of Liberty It has a copper skeleton designed by the engineer Gustave Eiffel, the same of the famous tower. The works started and they were expected to be ready for the centenary, on July 4, 1876, but there were many delays and that date was impossible to respect.

Little by little the statue took shape, however, and its parts could be visited in the workshops, as well as photographs and posters, all to raise money to speed up the completion of the work. In fact, those who attended the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1878 were able to get into their heads and climb to the crown by means of a 43-meter-high staircase. The head was placed on the famous Field of Mars.

And meanwhile what was happening in the United States? The base of the monument moved with the slowness of a snail. A) Yes, media entrepreneur Joseph Pulitzer launched a huge advertising campaign from his newspaper, encouraging donations to troche and moche. By 1884 the foundation stone of the pedestal had been laid, although it was all completed only in 1886.

In France the statue was already completed and many had visited and admired it. She was then dismounted, sent to Ruen by train, by ship on the Seine to the port of Le Havre, arriving in New York in June 1886. It traveled dismantled in 350 pieces, in 214 boxes. The flame and the right arm were already in America before. In other boxes traveled the bolts, rivets and nuts.

four months later the Statue of Liberty was already assembled and was inaugurated in the presence of President Cleveland, special and curious guests. France was represented by the Vice President of the French Senate, Desmons. The statue had not been ready for the centenary until a decade later, but here it was at last.

At some point in its existence the statue served as a lighthouse for New York, between its assembly and 1902 exactly. Its light could be seen 39 kilometers away and it had an electric generator specially installed on the island for its operation. And then, in keeping with the times, the Statue of Liberty It was undergoing renovations and modernizations, especially electrical ones.

hand in hand with electricity an elevator was installed at the beginning of the century, renovated in the '30s, a heating system in the following decade and headband lights improvements of solar rays. And of course, many structural restorations that ensured the long life of the monument. The most important took place in the 80's, moment in which the original torch was supplanted, with gold sheets and more lamps. You can actually see the old torch in the museum of the monument itself.

And of course, the old iron was also supplanted by stainless steel, the old elevator by a new one and much more. Thus, it opened again on July 5, 1986.

What does the Statue of Liberty mean?

His name is eloquent enough. Liberty is this imposing woman, standing, dressed in a stole and crowned with diadem of seven peaks, representing the seven continents and the seven seas. The 25 windows of the diadem represent earth gems, diadem that in turn recalls the one used by the god Helios, the Sun for the Greeks. In his right hand he raises a torch that illuminates the world, and in his left hand he has a tablet that bears the date on which the Declaration of Independence of the United States was signed.

The statue rises 46 meters and if we count the height from the ground to the tip of the torch they are 93 meters in total. At his feet some broken chains symbolize more freedom. Whose? Well, from Great Britain, located like the rest of Europe to the east, which is where the monument faces.

Visit the Statue of Liberty

To make the visit you must buy the ferry ticket and plan the visit. The company is Statue Cruises, the only one authorized to take passengers to the islands, and the same ticket gives you access to the ferries, the surroundings, the museum and the audio guides. Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty are only accessible by ferries departing from locations in Lower Manhattan and New Jersey.

Isla Libertad has a nice park and museum and is the best for taking photos of the monument from different angles. The statue museum has great exhibits and you'll see the original torch on display. For its part, Ellis Island opens a window on the history of immigration to America.


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