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Vincent Van Gogh

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Vincent Van Gogh

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Nela Azevedo

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Nela Azevedo

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Nela Azevedo

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Stall-owner Isidro Ek'mato explains how to read the Maya calendar, which some believe foretells the end of the world on Friday.

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Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi

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On July 4, 1884 France presented the United States with an incredible birthday gift: the Statue of Liberty! Without its pedestal it's as tall as a 15-story building. She represents the United States. But the world-famous Statue of Liberty standing in New York Harbor was built in France. The statue was presented to the U.S., taken apart, shipped across the Atlantic Ocean in crates, and rebuilt in the U.S. It was France's gift to the American people.

It all started at dinner one night near Paris in 1865. A group of Frenchmen were discussing their dictator-like emperor and the democratic government of the U.S. They decided to build a monument to American freedom-and perhaps even strengthen French demands for democracy in their own country. At that dinner was the sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi (bar-TOLE-dee). He imagined a statue of a woman holding a torch burning with the light of freedom.

Turning Bartholdi's idea into reality took 21 years. French supporters raised money to build the statue, and Americans paid for the pedestal it would stand on. Finally, in 1886, the statue was dedicated.

Fast Facts

Engineer Gustave Eiffel, who would later design the Eiffel Tower in Paris, designed Liberty's "spine." Inside the statue four huge iron columns support a metal framework that holds the thin copper skin.

Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi knew he wanted to build a giant copper goddess; he used his mother as the model.

The statue-151 feet, 1 inch (46 meters, 2.5 centimeters) tall-was the tallest structure in the U.S. at that time.

The arm holding the torch measures 46 feet (14 meters); the index finger, 8 feet (2.4 meters); the nose, nearly 5 feet (1.5 meters).

The statue is covered in 300 sheets of coin-thin copper. They were hammered into different shapes and riveted together.

The statue sways 3 inches (7.62 centimeters) in the wind; the torch sways 5 inches (12.7 centimeters).

Visitors climb 354 steps (22 stories) to look out from 25 windows in the crown.

Seven rays in the crown represent the Earth's seven seas.

Text by Peter Winkler

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The Light of Liberty -- National Geographic Kids

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On July 4, 1884 France presented the United States with an incredible birthday gift: the Statue of Liberty! Without its pedestal it's as tall as a 15-story building. She represents the United States. But the world-famous Statue of Liberty standing in New York Harbor was built in France.

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Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi

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Indonesia

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Composition and meetings of 13.COM Bureau - patrimonio inmaterial - Sector de Cultura - UNESCO

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Sitio web de la Convención para la Salvaguardia del Patrimonio Cultural Inmaterial

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Indonesia

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Sari Srulovitch

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Sari Srulovitch

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Sari Srulovitch Judaica Silver Smith Jerusalem-born Sari graduated with distinction from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem (BFA) and the Royal College of Art, London (MA, RCA). She lectured for several years at the Bezalel Academy and at the Wizo Canada College of Design in Haifa