Why does the Statue of Liberty stand on the coast of New York?

The Statue of Liberty was sculpted in Paris by French sculptor Bartholdi and later turned into a metal product with the help of Gustave Fiffel. This building symbolizing freedom was a gift to the United States from France in 1886 when it celebrated the centenary of independence. Since then, the Statue of Liberty standing in New York Harbor has welcomed hundreds of millions of immigrants to the United States.

On October 28, 1886, with the steam whistles of New York Harbor ships blasting and fireworks everywhere, amidst the 21-gun salute, President Grover Cleveland presented North America with perhaps the most famous statue in the world. the American people. From then on, passengers on ships entering New York Harbor could see the standing Statue of Liberty holding the Liberty Torch high. For thousands of immigrants who came to the United States, the Statue of Liberty was a guarantee of escape from poverty and oppression in the Old World, and the Statue of Liberty became a symbol of the United States.

The Statue of Liberty was built in France. On July 4, 1884, it was officially handed over to the U.S. Ambassador in France as a gift from the French people to the American people. Subsequently, the statue of the goddess was dismantled and shipped to New York by ship, and then reassembled on Bedlow Island (now Liberty Island) on a huge pedestal funded by the United States.

The base designed by American architect Richard Morris Hunt is 47 meters high, and the statue of the goddess itself is 46 meters high, thus making the tip of the torch 93 meters above the ground. The statue of the goddess weighs 229 tons, has a waist width of 10.6 meters, a mouth width of 91 centimeters, the right arm holding the torch high is 12.8 meters long, and the index finger alone is 2.4 meters long. The feet of the goddess have broken iron shackles symbolizing the overthrow of tyranny, and her left hand holds a copy of the American Declaration of Independence. The seven rays of freedom on her crown symbolize the seven oceans and seven continents. The spiral staircase inside the statue of the goddess allows visitors to climb up to the head, which is equivalent to climbing a 12-story building.

The Statue of Liberty originated from French politics. Napoleon III ascended the throne in 1865. A scholar named Eduard du Lablay and people in his circle wanted to end the monarchy and establish a new French Republic. They brewed a Statue of Liberty to express their support for the Atlantic Ocean. the praise of the great Communists and nations on the other side, and inspired mutual sympathy between the French and American peoples.

Frederick Auguste Bataudi, a young sculptor from Alsace, was encouraged by Lablay to consider the design of this project. Pataudi has always hoped to build a huge goddess lighthouse with a torch in the Suez Canal to reflect the light of progress emerging in Asia. He embarked on this new project with great enthusiasm. His Statue of Liberty was influenced by the famous painting "Liberty Guiding the People" by the painter Dragroix, and the face of the goddess reflected the stern face and expression of his own mother... The statue of the goddess is huge, The weather created thorny technical problems for Bataudi and his engineers (a shrewd and capable builder of the Eiffel Tower, Alexandre Gustavo Eiffel). Eiffel built an elaborate iron frame supported by a central bracket. A visible outer layer of the sculpture, only 2.4 mm thick, is attached to this flexible inner frame. Bataudi began with a small 1.2-meter-tall model statue, then made three more, each larger than the previous one, until he achieved just the right grand scale.

The base of the Statue of Liberty houses a museum introducing the history of American immigration. Opened in 1972. The first part introduces the ancestors of American Indians who drifted across the Atlantic from Asia to this unexplored continent. Then the modern large-scale immigration situation is introduced. By playing movies and TV shows, models, photography, paintings, and clothing are displayed, and detailed materials are provided to introduce each group that came to the New World, including the West Africans who were trafficked as slaves on ships, and the Irish who immigrated in large numbers in the 19th century. , Italians and Jews. Emma Lazarus drew inspiration from the Statue of Liberty and wrote the famous poem "The New Giant", describing the scene where the goddess holding a torch by the Golden Gate Bridge welcomed the huddled civilians who had been abandoned by the old world. .

Since 1892, immigrant ships have arrived at Ellis Island next to Liberty Island. Germans, Irish, Italians, Slavs, and Jews spoke their own languages, and there was a lot of noise. Uneasy anxiety was intertwined with hope and passion, forming a warm atmosphere. At the beginning of the 20th century, the average number of newly arrived immigrants passing through the halls per day was 2,000. At its peak in 1907, Ellis Island handled the immigration of more than 1 million people. In 1954, the immigration station closed. Now under restoration, it will become a national memorial.