The Statue of Liberty Arrives in New York

On this day - 17 June - in 1885 the Statue of Liberty arrived in New York in 214 crates.

Proposed by a French abolitionist in 1865 to celebrate the American ideal of freedom for all, the Statue of Liberty was a gift of friendship from France to the U.S. And quite a generous gift at that - the statue cost around $250,000, the equivalent of over $5.5 million today. It would take two decades to fully come to fruition, finally arriving at New York Harbor in 350 pieces packed in 214 crates in 1885.

In April 1886, American architect Richard Morris Hunt finished the granite pedestal on which the statue would stand, and construction crews began piecing the monument together. Then, on October 28 of that year, in front of thousands of spectators, President Grover Cleveland presided over the dedication of the Statue of Liberty.

From ground level to torch the imposing monument is 305 feet 1 inch (93 meters) tall. But it wasn’t until 1903, though, that poet Emma Lazurus’ now-famous sonnet The New Colossus was inscribed on a plaque and added to the pedestal.

Here's her poem...

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!”