The Statue of Liberty

The Statue of Liberty

-------The Light of US

Last class, Dr. Shaw showed us some pictures about The Statue of Liberty. The Statue of Liberty represents a woman holding a torch of fire. It stands on an island at the entrance to the New York City. It is almost 93 meters tall including the bottom. One of the tallest statues ever built. Its complete name is “Liberty Enlightening the World.” The Statue of Liberty was a gift to the people of the United States from the people of France. Now the statue has become an icon of freedom and of the United States.

The idea for the statue came from a history expert in 1865. Six years later, artist Frederic Bartholdi traveled to the United States to build the statue. He decided it should stand on an island in New York harbor. Bartholdi began designing the statue when he returned to France. He designed the statue’s face to look like his mother’s. French officials organized a group to raise money and finish the project. The French people gave four hundred thousand dollars to build the statue. In the same time, the Americans established a similar committee to raise money needed to build the statue’s base. The statue was built in France. Bartholdi had hoped it would be ready on the one hundredth celebration of the American Declaration of Independence in 1876. But it was not. France officially presented the statue to the United States minister to France in Paris on July fourth, 1884. The statue was then taken apart and sent to the United States. “Liberty Enlightening the World” was completed in the United States in 1886. New York

City celebrated with a huge welcome. President Grover Cleveland and other American and French officials held the ceremonies. There was a famous poem written by Emma Lazarus for The statue:

The New Colossus Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land；

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch whose flame

Is imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome； her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities .

\"Keep ancient lands your storied pomp!\" cries she with silent lips.

\"Give me your tired your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!\"