On June 17, 130 years ago, Lady Liberty arrived in New York. To celebrate the anniversary, we've rounded up nine surprising facts you might not have known about this iconic statue.
1. Frenchman Edouard de Laboulaye initially proposed the idea of a monument for the United States in 1865.
2. It was meant to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
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The date July 4, 1776 is written on the tablet in Lady Liberty's hand.
3. There was an agreement between America and France regarding the construction: The Americans were to build the foundation and the French were to be responsible for the actual statue itself.
4. Frederic Auguste Bartholdi was commissioned to design the Statue of Liberty in 1876
, but after running into technical problems, Alexandre Gustave Eiffel was brought in to design the structural elements.
Bartholdi was pictured on 22 cent U.S. postage stamps in 1985.
5. Joseph Pulitzer asked the American public to donate to the construction efforts in the pages of his newspaper, The World. The newspaper raised $100,000 in six months.
According to the National Parks Service, roughly 125,000 people donated because of Pultizer's articles.
6. There are 354 stairs leading to Lady Liberty's crown.
And the crown has 25 windows.
7. The statue was completed in France in 1884, then disassembled into 350 pieces and packed into 214 crates to ship to America.
8. It took four months to reassemble the statue on the pedestal at Liberty Island.
Henri Meyer drew the statue in 1884 in Paris, France.
9. It was declared a National Monument on October 15, 1924, approximately 38 years after its completion.
For more information, visit The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc.