P221 - USA - The Statue of Liberty

The Statue of Liberty and New York's Skyline with the blue beams of the Tribute in Light remembering the former World Trade Center, New York, USA

The Statue of Liberty, officially titled Liberty Enlightening the World, is a monument that was presented to the United States of America by the people of France in 1886 to celebrate its centennial. Standing on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, it welcomes visitors, immigrants, and returning Americans traveling by ship. The copper-clad statue, dedicated on October 28, 1886, commemorates the centennial of the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence and was given to the United States by France to represent the friendship between the two countries established during the American Revolution. Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi sculpted the statue and obtained a U.S. patent for its structure. Maurice Koechlin—chief engineer of Gustave Eiffel's engineering company and designer of the Eiffel Tower—engineered the internal structure. Eugène Viollet-le-Duc was responsible for the choice of copper in the statue's construction and adoption of the repoussé technique, where a malleable metal is hammered on the reverse side.

The statue is of a robed woman holding a torch, and is made of a sheeting of pure copper, hung on a framework of steel (originally puddled iron) with the exception of the flame of the torch, which is coated in gold leaf (originally made of copper and later altered to hold glass panes). It stands atop a rectangular stonework pedestal with a foundation in the shape of an irregular eleven-pointed star. The statue is 151 ft (46 m) tall, but with the pedestal and foundation, it is 305 ft (93 m) tall.

Worldwide, the Statue of Liberty is one of the most recognizable icons of the United States and was, from 1886 until the jet age, often one of the first glimpses of the United States for millions of immigrants after ocean voyages from Europe. Visually, the Statue of Liberty appears to draw inspiration from il Sancarlone or the Colossus of Rhodes.

The statue is the central part of Statue of Liberty National Monument, administered by the National Park Service.

美國的自由女神像（Statue of Liberty），又稱「自由照耀世界」（英語：Liberty Enlightening the World），是法國在1876年贈送給美國的獨立100週年禮物。美國的自由女神像坐落於美國紐約州紐約市附近的自由島，是美國重要的觀光景點。

美國的自由女神像以法國塞納河的自由女神像作藍本，法國著名雕塑家巴托爾迪歷時10年艱辛完成了雕像的雕塑工作，女神的外貌設計來源於雕塑家的母親，而女神高舉火炬的右手則是以雕塑家妻子的手臂為藍本。

自由女神穿著古希臘風格的服裝，所戴頭冠有象徵世界七大洲及五大洋的七道尖芒。女神右手高舉象徵自由的火炬，左手捧著一本封面刻有「1776年7月4日」字樣的法律典籍，腳下是打碎的手銬、腳鐐和鎖鏈。她象徵著自由、掙脫暴政的約束，在1886年10月28日落成並揭幕。雕像鍛鐵的內部結構是由後來建造了巴黎艾菲爾鐵塔的居斯塔夫·艾菲爾設計的。

自由女神像高46米，加基座為93米，重200多噸，是金屬鑄造，置於一座混凝土制的台基上。自由女神的底座是著名的約瑟夫·普利茲籌集10萬美金建成的。

1984年，自由女神像被列為世界文化遺產。

References sources : Wikipedia