Although the iconic statue is one of the best known symbols of the United States, it was actually designed by Frenchman Frederick Auguste Bartholdi and built in France. After nine years of construction it was disassembled into its 350 individual pieces and shipped to America in 214 crates. The statue was a gift of the people of France and commemorated 100 years of American Independence.
The Statue of Liberty is one of the largest statues in the world. It stands a little over 151 feet high on top of a foundation that is 65 feet high and pedestal that is 89 feet high. This makes the Statue of Liberty 305 feet high in total. The statue's sandals are a size 879 and each sandal is 25 feet long.
Liberty Island was formerly called Bedloe's Island. It is located off New Jersey's coastline, right by New Jersey's Liberty State Park. For many years, New York and New Jersey both claimed ownership of the island, but a Supreme Court decision settled this dispute in 1987 and definitively gave ownership to New York.
The copper cladding of the Statue of Liberty is quite thin. One National Parks spokesperson described the layer of copper as being as thin as the width of two pennies. Originally the copper was a golden color, but today it is green because of oxidation. During the statue's restoration in 1986, a replacement torch was placed and covered with a veneer of 24 carat gold.
There are hundreds of replicas of the Statue of Liberty scattered throughout the world. In gratitude for France's gift of the statue, the Americans living in Paris built a 35 foot replica in bronze in 1889. It is located on the island of Grenelle in the middle of the Seine River where it faces in the direction of the Eiffel Tower. Paris boasts an even smaller and little known replica situated in the Luxemburg Gardens.
