He turns 134 today Statue of Liberty, one of the most iconic monuments in the United States. Begun in New York on August 5, 1884, it was completed by 1885 and inaugurated on 28 October 1886. In fact, his real name is "Liberty enlightening the world”, or “The freedom that illuminates the world”.
Gift of the French people to the USA, it was made by sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi with the collaboration of Gustave Eiffel, the engineer who went down in history for the Parisian tower, who designed its interior. It consists of a steel reticular structure covered with 300 copper sheets and rests on a gray-pink granite base.
With its imposing height of 46 meters (which become 93 if the plinth is included), the Statue of Liberty dominates the rock Liberty Island, in the center of the Manhattan bay, near the harbor entrance on the Hudson River.
Precisely because of its position, the monument immediately had great symbolic value for immigrants which – arriving by ship from Europe – landed at Ellis Island, a few hundred meters further into the bay. For those en route to the US in search of fortune, the Statue of Liberty, visible up to 40 kilometers away, was almost always the first image to imprint itself in memory.
On the pedestal of the monument is engraved a sonnet written in 1983 by the American poet Emma Lazarus and entitled "The New Colossus”. Here is the translation:
Not like the bronze giant of Greek fame,
who astride from shore to shore extends his conquering limbs:
here, where the waves of our sea break,
a mighty woman will stand up with the torch in her hand,
whose flame is an imprisoned thunderbolt, and will have as
name Mother of Exiles. The lighthouse
in his hand he will welcome the world, i
his meek eyes will scrutinize that sea that lies between two cities.
Ancient lands, - she will say with silent lips,
to you the great pomp! You give me
your weary, your poor,
your shivering masses longing to breathe free,
the miserable refuse of your crowded beaches.
Send me them, the homeless, the storm-tossed,
and I will lift my torch by the golden door.
