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( Statue of Liberty)
Liberty Enlightening the World (French La liberté éclairant le monde), commonly known as the Statue of Liberty (French Statue de la Liberté), was presented to the United States by the people of France in 1886. Standing on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, it welcomes visitors, immigrants, and returning Americans.[5] The copper-clad statue, dedicated on October 28, 1886, commemorates the centennial of the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence and is a gesture of friendship from France to the United States.[6] Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi sculpted the statue[7] and obtained a U.S. patent for its structure.[8] Maurice Koechlin - chief engineer of Gustave Eiffel's engineering company and designer of the Eiffel Tower - engineered the internal structure. Eugène Viollet-le-Duc was responsible for the choice of copper in the statue's construction and adoption of the repoussé technique, where a malleable metal is hammered on the reverse side.[9] The statue is of a robed woman holding a torch, and is made of a sheeting of pure copper, hung on a framework of steel (originally puddled iron) with the exception of the flame of the torch, which is coated in gold leaf (originally made of copper and later altered to hold glass panes.) It stands atop a rectangular stonework pedestal with a foundation in the shape of an irregular eleven-pointed star. The statue is 151&_160;ft (46&_160;m) tall, but with the pedestal and foundation, it is 305&_160;ft (93&_160;m) tall. Worldwide, the Statue of Liberty is one of the most recognizable icons of the United States[10] and was, from 1886 until the jet age, often one of the first glimpses of the United States for millions of immigrants after ocean voyages from Europe. Visually, the Statue of Liberty appears to draw inspiration from il Sancarlone or the Colossus of Rhodes. The statue is the central part of Statue of Liberty National Monument, administered by the National Park Service.
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