Pictures: The Statue Of Liberty Being Built in a Paris Neighborhood

In 1865 a young French sculptor named Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi [wiki] went to a banquet near the town of Versailles, where he struck up a conversation with Edouard de Laboulaye, a prominent historian.

 

De Laboulaye, a great admirer of the United States, observed that the country's centennial was approaching in 1876. He thought it would be a good idea for France to present America with a gift to commemorate the occasion. But what? Bartholdi proposed a giant statue of some kind … and thought about it for the next six years.

 

By 1871, Bartholdi had most of the details worked out in his mind: The American monument would be a colossal statue of a woman called "Liberty Enlightening the World." It would be paid for by the French people, and the pedestal that it stood on would be financed and built by the Americans.

 

The idea excited him so much that he booked a passage on a ship and sailed to New York to drum up support for it. As he entered New York Harbor, Bartholdi noticed a small, 12-acre piece of land near Ellis Island, called Bedloe's Island. He decided it was the perfect spot for his statue.

 

Funding the project was a problem in both countries:

 

In France, public fees, various forms of entertainment, and a lottery were among the methods used to raise funds. In the United States, benefit theatrical events, art exhibitions, auctions and prize fights assisted in providing needed funds. Meanwhile in France, Bartholdi required the assistance of an engineer to address structural issues associated with designing such as colossal copper sculpture. … Back in America, fund raising for the pedestal was going particularly slowly, so Joseph Pulitzer (noted for the Pulitzer Prize) opened up the editorial pages of his newspaper, "The World" to support the fund raising effort. Pulitzer used his newspaper to criticize both the rich who had failed to finance the pedestal construction and the middle class who were content to rely upon the wealthy to provide the funds. Pulitzer's campaign of harsh criticism was successful in motivating the people of America to donate.

 

Once the funding was in place, the construction began:

A French sculptor named Auguste Bartholdi was put in charge of building the massive statue. He was helped immensely by the engineer Alexandre Eiffel (the man who built the Eiffel Tower), who designed the statue's copper skin to move ever so slightly in the wind yet not enough to come loose from its steel frame. (Indeed, it sways, the entire statue as much as 3 inches in a 50mph wind.)

The pedestal was built here in the U.S., largely using donated money. New York World publisher Joseph Pulitzer was instrumental in helping raise money to complete this project.

The statue was completed in 1884, then amazingly dismantled for shipping across the Atlantic Ocean. The 152-foot-tall statue was taken apart into 350 pieces and placed in 219 crates. The French ship Isere transported the statue's parts to New York in 1885, the same year that the pedestal was complete. It took several months of reconstruction and "final touches," but the statue was finally unveiled on October 28, 1886, to the satisaction and relief of people on both sides of the Atlantic. Both nations had hoped to unveil the statue in New York harbor in 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Delays in construction and funds pushed the celebration back 10 years.

This construction was unique in a few ways:

 

 

How the statue was built was a huge engineering feat for that time. Here's some details: