VOICE ONE:

Wednesday, July Fourth, is America’s Independence Day holiday. Ahuge statue honoring freedom and liberty rises ninety-three metersat the entrance to New York Harbor. I’m Sarah Long.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Shirley Griffith. The story of the Statue of Liberty isour report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS ISAMERICA.

((MUSIC BRIDGE: LIBERTY FANFARE))

VOICE ONE:

Americans like to say the Statue of Liberty is in good conditionfor a woman of her age. She is more than one-hundred-years old.France gave the statue to the United States in Eighteen-Eighty-Four.

For more than thirty years the statue welcomed millions offoreign people arriving by ship to live in the United States. Todaymore than two-million people visit the statue every year. The Statueof Liberty has become a representation of freedom for peopleeverywhere.

The full name of the statue is “Liberty Enlightening the World.”It stands on Liberty Island in Upper New York Bay, abouttwo-and-one-half kilometers from Manhattan Island. It was built inthe nineteenth century. But it still remains the tallest metalstatue in the world.

VOICE TWO:

The Statue of Liberty is mostly made of copper. Once it was areddish-brown color. But time and weather have turned it green. Thestatue wears a loose robe. She raises her right arm high in the air.Her right hand holds a torch — a golden light. Her left hand holdsa tablet. It shows the date of the American Declaration ofIndependence – July Fourth, Seventeen-Seventy-Six. The statue wearsa crown on her head. The crown has seven points. Each of these raysrepresents the light of freedom. This light shines on seven seas andseven continents. A chain representing oppression lies broken at herfeet.

VOICE ONE:

Twelve-million immigrants from other countries passed the statueby ship between Eighteen-Ninety-Two and Nineteen Twenty-Four. Thenthey were taken to the immigration center on nearby Ellis Island.There they went through the processes necessary to live in theUnited States.

Many immigrants thought of the statue as a welcoming mother forrefugees. Emma Lazarus expressed this idea in a poem inEighteen-Eighty-Three. She called her poem “The New Colossus.” Shewrote:

“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. “

((MUSIC BRIDGE))

VOICE TWO:

The people of France gave the Statue of Liberty to the UnitedStates in Eighteen-Eighty-Four. Their gift honored freedom. It alsomarked the friendship between the two nations. This friendship haddeveloped during America’s revolution against Britain. France helpedthe revolutionary armies defeat the soldiers of King George theThird. The war officially ended in Seventeen-Eighty-Three. A fewyears later, the French rebelled against their own king.

VOICE ONE:

A French historian and politician named Edouard-Rene Lefebvre deLaboulaye started the idea for a statue. Mister Laboulaye was givinga party in his home near Versailles in Eighteen-Sixty-Five. This wasthe year the American Civil War ended. Slavery also ended in theUnited States. It was a time when Mister Laboulaye and others werestruggling to make their own country democratic. France wassuffering under the rule of Napoleon the Third.

Mister Laboulaye suggested that the French and Americans build amonument together to celebrate freedom.

VOICE TWO:

One of the guests at the party was a young sculptor, FredericAuguste Bartholdi. For years Mister Bartholdi had dreamed ofcreating a very large statue. By the end of the party he had beeninvited to create a statue of freedom for the United States.

Mister Bartholdi had neverdesigned anything taller than four meters. But he planned thisstatue as the largest since ancient times. Its face would be theface of his mother, Auguste-Charlotte Bartholdi.

In Eighteen-Seventy-Five the French established an organizationto raise money for Mister Bartholdi’s creation.

VOICE ONE:

Two years later the Americans established a group to help pay forthe pedestal. This structure would support the statue. Americanarchitect Richard Morris Hunt was chosen to design the pedestal. Itwould stand forty-seven meters high inside the walls of a fort. Thefort had been built in the early Eighteen-Hundreds. It was designedin the shape of a star.

In France, Mister Bartholdi designed a small version of hisstatue. Then he built a series of larger copies.

Workers created wood forms covered with plaster for each mainpart. Then they placed three-hundred pieces of copper on the forms.The copper “skin” was less than three centimeters thick.

VOICE TWO:

Now the Statue of Liberty needed a structure that could hold itsgreat weight. Engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel created this newtechnology. Later he would gain fame for building the Eiffel Towerin Paris.

Mister Eiffel designed a support system for the Statue ofLiberty. The system had an iron tower in its center. He decided thatiron bars would connect the copper “skin” of the statue to thiscentral tower. Mister Eiffel and his helpers worked on the design inParis. It provided a strong support for the statue. It alsopermitted the statue to move a little in strong winds.

VOICE ONE:

France had hoped to give the statue to the United States on JulyFourth, Eighteen-Seventy-Six. That was the one-hundredth anniversaryof the signing of America’s Declaration of Independence. Buttechnical problems and lack of money delayed the project by eightyears.

At last France presented the statue to the United States. Thecelebration took place in Paris on July Fourth,Eighteen-Eighty-Four. Americans started building the pedestal thatsame year. But they had to stop. People had not given enough moneyto finish the structure.A New York newspaper urged Americans to givemore money for the pedestal. People reacted by givingone-hundred-thousand dollars.

VOICE TWO:

Now the huge statue had a pedestal to stand on. In France, thestatue was taken apart for shipping to the United States. It wasshipped in two-hundred-fourteen wooden boxes.

On October Twenty-Eighth, Eighteen-Eighty-Six, President GroverCleveland officially accepted Liberty Enlightening the World. Hesaid: “We will not forget that Liberty has here made her home.”Mister Bartholdi and representatives of the French governmentattended the ceremony. People paraded through the streets of NewYork. Boats filled the harbor.

((MUSIC BRIDGE))

VOICE ONE:

Over the years Americans shortened the name of the statue. Theycalled it the Statue of Liberty, or Miss Liberty. The statuecontinued to welcome many immigrants arriving by ship untilNineteen-Twenty-Four. That is when Ellis Island stopped much of itsoperation. The great wave of immigration to the United States wasmostly over.

But millions of visitors kept coming to see the Statue ofLiberty. By the Nineteen-Eighties, the statue badly needed repairs.Again people on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean cooperated to raisemoney. Automobile manufacturer Lee Iacocca led the campaign in theUnited States. Big companies gave money for the repairs. So didschool children. Fireworks lit the sky at the celebration for therestored Statue of Liberty on July Fourth, Nineteen-Eighty-Six.

VOICE TWO:

Thousands of people still visit the Statue of Liberty every day.They reach the statue by boat. Many people climb thethree-hundred-fifty-four steps to the crown. Or they ride up toobservation areas in an elevator. Or they study the story of thestatue in a museum in the monument.

The famous poem by Emma Lazarus appears in the museum. The lastpart of the poem expresses the history of the Statue of Liberty. Itsays:

“Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me.

“I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

((LIBERTY FANFARE INSTEAD OF THEME))

VOICE ONE:

This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced byGeorge Grow. Our studio engineer was Keith Holmes. I’m Sarah Long.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for anotherreport about life in the United States on the VOA Special Englishprogram, THIS IS AMERICA.