Disgusted with his sketches for a great statue, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi had thrown them all into the ocean the night before. But now his ship was entering New York Harbor and he didn't have a single idea to present to the Americans.
Bartholdi had come to New York in 1871 to suggest that the Americans and French build a giant statue for the United States' 100th birthday that would honor the idea of liberty.
As the ship sailed into the harbor, Bartholdi noticed little Bedloe's Island with its star-shaped fort. Suddenly he knew what he would do, and rushed to his cabin to sketch a giant woman standing atop the old fort holding a torch. He even knew her name. She would be called, "Liberty Enlightening the World," and her calm, strong face would be the face of his mother.
His trip was a success. The Americans agreed to build the pedestal if the French would build the statue.
Back in Paris, Bartholdi worked without pay to build a great statue of heavy copper plate around a metal skeleton designed by Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, who also built the Eiffel Tower.
Though Bartholdi couldn't complete the job by the 1876 centennial, he did finish the hand holding the torch, which was displayed in Philadelphia. Until then, Bartholdi's American friends had been doing mostly nothing, but on seeing the torch a committee got busy raising money.
In 1884 the statue was finished, but the pedastal was not, so Liberty just stood in Paris. Finally, Joseph Pulitzer, owner of the "World newspaper, got fed up and used his paper to ask the "little people" to send money. They gave $100,000, enough to finish the pedastal.
On Oct. 28, 1886, dedication day, Bartholdi accidentally unveiled Liberty in the middle of Senator Evart's speech, which was immediately drowned out by the screech of boat whistles, ring of church bells, blast of cannons and music from the bands.
The Statue of Liberty, as it is now known, stands 151 feet high on top of an 89-foot tall pedastal on top of a 65-foot tall base. She wears a crown of seven spokes and holds a book of law on which is written the date of the United States' independence, July, 4, 1776.
In 1903 a brass plaque was added with a poem by Emma Lazarus that includes this famous line: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free."
