Statue of Liberty
Sailing into New York Harbor, the first thing to meet you is a colossal copper-green figure — crown on her head, torch raised high. This is the Statue of Liberty, officially titled *Liberty Enlightening the World*. She was a gift from the people of France, sculpted by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and given an internal iron framework by Gustave Eiffel — the same engineer behind the Eiffel Tower — and unveiled on October 28, 1886. Her right hand holds the torch aloft; her left arm cradles a tablet inscribed "JULY IV MDCCLXXVI" (July 4, 1776, the date of the Declaration of Independence). Beneath her feet, a broken chain and shackle commemorate the abolition of slavery after the Civil War. She has been lighthouse, welcome beacon for immigrants, and enduring symbol of liberty. Step inside the pedestal and the statue itself, and every copper panel conceals a story that spans two continents.
United States · 4 The overlooked corners inside
The overlooked corners inside
Liberty Statue Renovation
On January 23, 1984, the Statue of Liberty closed to the public for the most extensive restoration in its history. The project was led by architect Richard Seth Hayden of Swanke Hayden Connell Architects and ran for thirty months, with the goal of returning the statue to its original condition in time for the centennial of its 1886 unveiling. The scope went far beyond cosmetic work: roughly 1,800 rusted iron armature bars inside the statue were removed one by one and replaced with 316L stainless steel, separated from the copper skin by PTFE (Teflon) tape to prevent galvanic corrosion. The torch was removed on July 4, 1984, and craftsmen in Reims, France spent fourteen months fabricating a replacement. The statue reopened in July 1986, and the original torch is now on permanent display in the Statue of Liberty Museum, which opened in 2019.
Sources: wikidata.org · en.wikipedia.org · nps.gov
Statue of Liberty
Standing at this point, you are looking at the statue itself — the copper figure unveiled on October 28, 1886, and known the world over as Lady Liberty. Her copper skin is just 2.4 millimeters thick, yet it has weathered more than a century of salt air and oxidation to produce the landmark blue-green patina. The statue alone stands approximately 46 meters (151 feet) tall; pedestal included, the total rises to 93 meters (305 feet). Visitors today can access the pedestal level and the crown observation deck. The arm passage leading to the torch has been permanently closed since 1916 and has never been reopened.
Sources: overpass-api.de · en.wikipedia.org
The Franco-American Union
No government paid for this statue — not France's, not America's. In September 1875, with the United States approaching its centennial and the Philadelphia World's Fair on the horizon, the French historian Édouard de Laboulaye decided to raise the money from the public. He announced the project and founded the Franco-American Union as the fundraising body. It was also at this announcement that the statue received its name for the first time: "Liberty Enlightening the World." The terms were simple: the French people would fund the statue; Americans would pay for the pedestal. The figure you see today was built, coin by coin, by ordinary citizens on both sides of the Atlantic.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
The New Colossus
Inside the Statue of Liberty Museum, a bronze plaque bears a sonnet titled "The New Colossus." Its lines — "Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free" — have become inseparable from the statue in American culture. The poet, Emma Lazarus, initially refused the commission: she said she could not write a poem about a statue. But at the time she was working directly with refugees fleeing antisemitic violence in Eastern Europe and arriving in New York by the thousands, and that gave her an angle — she poured her feeling for those refugees into the figure of the statue.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
FAQ
What overlooked corners are worth seeing inside Statue of Liberty?
Liberty Statue Renovation, Statue of Liberty, The Franco-American Union and more — 4 spots in all, each with sources and a guide in your language to read or listen to on the spot.
Is the Statue of Liberty guide free?
All 4 guides are free.