The Statue of Liberty: Building a Colossus

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It is the symbol of freedom the world over... a 'Modern Colossus' to represent America and its values to the world. But the Statue of Liberty was a gigantic undertaking in the 19th century. Oddly enough, the Statue of Liberty was a French invention, not an American one. French artist Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi first presented the idea at a dinner party in Versailles in 1865 after seeing the Pyramids and Sphinx of Egypt. Bartholdi spoke of the enduring impact of these monuments and asked, 'Isn't it time for 19th century people to leave behind their own great lasting legacy?'

Bartholdi's vision was a statue he called 'Liberty Enlightening the World,' a grand gift from the French people to the Americans on the first centennial of America's birth. Little could anyone have imagined that Bartholdi would spend nearly the rest of his life making the 'grand gift' a reality.

At the time, most engineers believed that Bartholdi's vision was impossible. He and his crew had to invent the construction techniques that would become the mainstays of the 20th century. Bartholdi's chief collaborator was a man as determined and brilliant as himself: Gustave Eiffel. The 40-year-old Eiffel was best known for building steel railway bridges - and was still years away from building his Paris namesake. Eiffel convinced Bartholdi that the statue needed to be light and flexible so that it could sway in the wind and survive in the elements. Eiffel suggested an innovative solution where the statue would be 'hung like a curtain' from a sturdy steel frame. Bartholdi insisted that the statue be constructed of copper, hand-hammered over wooden molds in the ancient method known as repousse.

The question facing Eiffel was how to assemble these copper plates on to his steel frame. His solution was simple, yet brilliant. Over 300 of these copper plates are seamlessly interlocked to create the 'skin' of the statue, and yet each one is independently attached to an internal steel framework by only a single bolt. They overlap and can easily expand and contract - and over 100 years later, Eiffel's brilliant solution allows the Statue to withstand the rough weather in New York City's harbor. The Statue was completed in France in July 1884 and sent to New York in 350 individual pieces packed in 214 crates. The Statue was re-assembled on her new pedestal in four months' time, standing 305 feet tall. At its grand unveiling on October 28, 1886, the Statue of Liberty was the tallest structure in the world.

Today, an army of workers continues to maintain it - polishing, painting and repairing - to make sure that the light of Liberty still shines and that the statue itself remains an eternal monument to freedom.