Statue of Liberty Construction

The construction of the Statue of Liberty was originally envisioned while Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, the architect, was visiting the country of Egypt. That is the place where he saw the construction of Suez Canal and was also the same place where he got his inspiration and motivation to build a colossal statue one day.

Little did he know that it would be the Statue of Liberty, the very same landmark that will soon be considered and recognized as one of the most important symbols of the United States.

For this project, he sought the assistance of Gustave Eiffel, a French engineer who also designed the world-renowned Eiffel Tower, for the proper designing of the Liberty's structure and form.

And, just like any other monumental project, there have been many subsequent delays to the Statue of Liberty construction and this hindered Bartholdi's original plan of presenting it to the United States on the fourth of July, year 1876.

However, a part of the statue that was finished was displayed at the Centennial Exposition held in Philadelphia and this gave rise the opportunity for Bartholdi to raise funds for the creation of the pedestal that will serve as the foundation of the Liberty statue. The head was also constructed and finished just on time to make its formal presentation to the public during Paris Exposition on the thirtieth of June, year 1878.

After a year, the design patent for the statue was finally released to Bartholdi, and some of the original contents of that patent account are still what we can generally see on the completed Statue of Liberty itself includig a cloaked female figure that is holding a torch which symbolizes the enlightenment of the world.

The pedestal for the statue was also completed on the year 1886 in the U. S. after the financing process was completed. Once the Statue of Liberty construction had been completed in France, the statue was then dismantled and was placed into separate crates ready to be transported. It was not until after the completion of the pedestal in the U. S. that the second Statue of Liberty construction project began, which was the reassembling of all parts.

There have been many materials used for the successful construction of the Statue of Liberty. A combination of terracotta, plaster of Paris, special alloys of metals, iron bas-relief and some other flexible and strong elements were used to construct the Statue of liberty. The construction of the skeletal framework was accomplished by Eiffel and was successfully done through the use of gridirons that provided the shape and form of the project.

Maurice Koechlin, a trusted secretary of Eiffel, also helped on finishing the very intricate details for the project, and both eventually became successful in determining the right dimensions of the statue and the necessary materials to be used to build and construct the statue.

After being taken out of France in 1885, Lady Liberty finally arrived in the harbor of New York and a year later, after several months that its parts stayed inside the crates, it was successfully reassembled within four months. The whole Statue of Liberty construction was finally finished in July 1886 and with the cornerstone laid on the fifth of August of the same year. Finally, 10 years past its due date, the Statue of Liberty was dedicated the general public by the late President Grover Cleveland on October 28, 1886.