Why was the Statue of Liberty built and why was it designed the way it is?

By Zach H. and Trey D.

"Statue of Liberty" from http://www.fotopedia.com/ by Koshyk

The plan was for the Statue of Liberty to be finished by 1876 to commemorate the centennial of the USA, and it was a joint-effort by France and America. The statue was a gift to the United States from the people of France. The robed female figure represents Liberatus, the Roman goddess of freedom who bears a torch and a tablet that has the date the signing of the Declaration of Independence.The Americans, who would build the pedestal, raised money mainly by donations, art exhibitions, and theatrical performances. The French raised money by fees and a lottery to fund the building of the statue itself. (Source 1).

"Statue of Liberty" from http://www.lichtspeicher.de/ by Felix Albrecht

Frederic Bartholdi was the sculptor who worked on it in France. To help with the designing process, Alexandre Gustave Eiffel (the designer of the Eiffel Tower), was asked to build the iron skeleton which allowed the tower to stand upright (Source 1). In 1886, the pedestal was finished in America. When the work in France was finally finished, it was shipped over in 204 crates. In fact, the ship almost sank on the way (Source 2). But the cargo got there safely and it was finished being constructed four months later. It was dedicated on October 38th, 1886, almost ten years late (Source 1).

Bibliography

Source 1: http://statueofliberty.org/Statue_History.html

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Source 2: http://www.nps.gov/stli/historyculture/index.htm