Uploaded September 2019 | Updated September 2026, 3 days ago
The statue originally named 'La Liberté Eclairant le Monde' (Liberty Enlightening the World) was a gift from the French people in 1886. The idea of a monument was proposed by Édouard René de Laboulaye, President of the French Anti-Slavery Society, in the hopes that the new nation would be forevermore an anti-slavery nation. Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and Gustave Eiffel designed this world-renowned icon of freedom.
Lady Liberty is dressed in Roman robes to signify the Republic. In her left hand she carries the tabula ansata inscribed with July 4, 1776. Her right hand thrusts a mighty torch into the sky for all arriving immigrants of the day to first see before arriving to Ellis Island.
When the gift first arrived to the United States, the nation could not afford to assemble and erect the monument. This led a nationwide fundraising movement to this end and inspired Emma Lazarus to write the incredibly impactful statue which reads:
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
Today, more than 5.4 million people visit the statue each year - that's an average of 15,000 per day. She stands at 305 feet tall on an 89 feet tall pedestal and weighs 450,000 pounds. You can be one of the 240 people each day allowed to climb to the top! Just make sure you reserve tickets at least 1 month in advance!
The statue originally named 'La Liberté Eclairant le Monde' (Liberty Enlightening the World) was a gift from the French people in 1886. The idea of a monument was proposed by Édouard René de Laboulaye, President of the French Anti-Slavery Society, in the hopes that the new nation would be forevermore an anti-slavery nation. Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and Gustave Eiffel designed this world-renowned icon of freedom.
Lady Liberty is dressed in Roman robes to signify the Republic. In her left hand she carries the tabula ansata inscribed with July 4, 1776. Her right hand thrusts a mighty torch into the sky for all arriving immigrants of the day to first see before arriving to Ellis Island.
When the gift first arrived to the United States, the nation could not afford to assemble and erect the monument. This led a nationwide fundraising movement to this end and inspired Emma Lazarus to write the incredibly impactful statue which reads:
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
Today, more than 5.4 million people visit the statue each year - that's an average of 15,000 per day. She stands at 305 feet tall on an 89 feet tall pedestal and weighs 450,000 pounds. You can be one of the 240 people each day allowed to climb to the top! Just make sure you reserve tickets at least 1 month in advance!
