Statue of Liberty

The Statue of Liberty, formally Liberty Enlightening the World, stands on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, a gift from the people of France to the United States commemorating the two nations' alliance and dedicated on October 28, 1886. The copper-clad statue was designed by the French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, with the internal iron pylon and skeletal framework engineered by Gustave Eiffel, and depicts a robed female figure representing Libertas holding a torch aloft in her right hand and a tablet inscribed with the date of American independence in her left. The statue itself rises about 151 feet, and including its pedestal and foundation the whole monument reaches roughly 305 feet from ground to torch. It became a National Monument in 1924 and UNESCO inscribed it as a World Heritage Site in 1984.