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The Statue of Liberty, officially known as Liberty Enlightening the World, stands as a universal symbol of American ideals such as freedom and democracy, admired across the globe.
10. The Black Tom Explosion
Before being connected to the mainland and incorporated into Jersey City, Black Tom Island was a distinct piece of land situated in New York Harbor, adjacent to Liberty Island. On July 30, 1916, several explosives detonated at Black Tom, causing shock waves that spread over 135 kilometers (90 miles), equivalent to an earthquake with a magnitude between 5.0 and 5.5 on the Richter scale.
Shrapnel from the explosion wreaked havoc, damaging the clock on the Jersey Journal building and the walls of city hall. Windows were shattered in lower Manhattan, with additional damage to window panes in Times Square. Fragments also struck the Statue of Liberty, leading to $100,000 in repairs.
The perpetrators were German saboteurs, retaliating against the British naval blockade of Germany during World War I. Despite the United States maintaining neutrality, it was producing weapons for countries engaged in battle with Germany. These arms were commonly shipped from Black Tom Island.
When the explosion occurred, Black Tom Island stored over 1 million kilograms (2 million lb) of explosives, including black powder, TNT, shrapnel, and dynamite, all set for shipment to England, France, Italy, and Russia. Following the incident, the Statue of Liberty's torch was closed to the public and has remained closed ever since.
9. The Human Statue of Liberty
On the afternoon of August 22, 1918, a remarkable event took place at Camp Dodge, where 18,000 soldiers from the US Army's 163rd Depot Brigade gathered. The men formed a large-scale silhouette resembling the Statue of Liberty on the drill grounds. The photo was captured from a specially constructed 12-meter (40 ft) tower.
The soldiers had gathered by 1:00 PM, following meticulous arrangements on the drill ground, which had been outlined with blocks and white tape. Dressed in black, they created the statue's silhouette, with a few in white representing its tablet, left hand, and crown. Twelve thousand soldiers formed the flame, 2,800 made up the torch, 1,200 stood for the right arm, and the remaining 2,000 filled out the rest of the body.
The sweltering heat, which reached 40 degrees Celsius (105 °F), caused some difficulty among the soldiers, and 12 of them fainted. The photo, intended to promote the sale of war bonds during World War I, was never published.
8. Replicas
Two 9-meter (30 ft) replicas of the Statue of Liberty can be found atop the Liberty National Bank in Buffalo, New York. One of these replicas mimics Marilyn Monroe's iconic pose, much like in Las Vegas, while the other is a unique creation built entirely from Lego blocks at Legoland Billund. In San Marcos, California, a 3-meter (11 ft) statue holds a Bible instead of the traditional tablet. A similar 8-meter (25 ft) replica in Memphis, Tennessee, holds a cross instead of a torch, and it's referred to as the Statue of Liberation through Christ.
A 35-meter (115 ft) version of the Statue of Liberty stands in Heide-Park, Soltau, Germany, while another can be found in Visnes, Norway, the site where the original statue’s copper was mined. France also hosts a replica in Siene, measuring 22 meters (70 ft), which was inaugurated in 1889, just three years after the one in New York. Bartholdi’s museum in Colmar, France, holds several other replicas that served as models during the construction of the real Statue of Liberty.
Another replica of the Statue of Liberty stands at the Royal Air Force base in Lakenheath, England, crafted from leftover copper originally used in the construction of the authentic Statue of Liberty. Replicas can also be found in countries like Kosovo, Argentina, Israel, Japan, Australia, Taiwan, and China. However, the most intriguing replica might be the one in Lviv, Ukraine, perched on the dome of a building. This version is unique because, unlike most others, it depicts the Statue of Liberty sitting.
7. The Torch Was Replaced
The Statue of Liberty's original torch was replaced between 1982 and 1986 during a series of renovations. Corrosion caused by water and snow seeping through windows installed during earlier repairs in 1916 had damaged the original torch.
Parts of the copper from the statue's flame were removed, and new glass windows were fitted. The new torch was crafted to replicate the original. French artisans used a technique known as repousse, where they hammered the copper from the underside to shape it. This same repousse method was employed by sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi when he created the entire Statue of Liberty, including its torch.
While the rest of the new torch was covered in copper, the flame itself was coated with gold leaf. The original torch can be viewed at the Statue of Liberty’s museum.
6. Its Initial Destination Was Egypt
In 1867, Bartholdi had discussions with the ruler of Egypt, Khedive Ismail Pasha, regarding the creation of a statue at the entrance of the Suez Canal, still under construction at that time. The envisioned statue was to depict a farmer holding a torch and would be named 'Progress' or 'Egypt carrying light to Asia.'
Bartholdi spent two years working on the design, and in 1869, he again met with Khedive Ismail. This time, he presented the idea of a woman in a robe holding a torch, which would act as a lighthouse—a function the eventual Statue of Liberty would also serve briefly.
Khedive Ismail expressed interest in the new statue and even suggested that the torch be placed on its head rather than in its hand. However, he ultimately rejected Bartholdi’s proposal due to the high cost of building the statue.
5. The Goddess of Democracy
The 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in China are widely remembered for the violent military crackdown and the iconic image of the protester known as “Tank Man.” In the midst of the protests, democracy advocates created a 10-meter (30 ft) statue modeled after Lady Liberty, named the “Goddess of Democracy.”
The statue was made by students of the Central Academy of Fine Arts and other Beijing schools within three days from foam, papier mache, and plaster. It showed a woman holding a torch above her head. The statue infuriated the Chinese government, which called it an abomination and issued a statement saying: “This is China, not America.”
The statue strengthened the protests, with hundreds of thousands of people coming to the square just to see it. It was also was one of the reasons the Chinese government used force to end the protests. Troops destroyed it five days after it was unveiled. They first used an armored personnel carrier to knock it over before using metal bars to hit it till their hands hurt.
4. The Wisconsin Prank
In 1978, pranksters Jim Mallon and Leon Varjian won the elections for president and vice president of the University of Wisconsin Students Union. As part of their campaign, they promised to change the university's name from the University of Madison to the University of New Jersey, so students could claim they attended a prestigious East Coast school. They also pledged to convert the Student Union budget into pennies, which would then be dumped in the library for students to collect with buckets and shovels. This became the basis for their party's name—The Pail and Shovel Party.
The duo went on to promise the construction of a 15-meter (50 ft) tall Mickey Mouse Pez candy dispenser, a mass renaming of students to Joe Smith (so professors could know every student by the same name), and the transportation of the Statue of Liberty to Wisconsin. Once in office, they became known for hosting lavish parties and handing out fake $1 million checks to visitors at the Students Union office.
To keep their promise of bringing the Statue of Liberty to Wisconsin, the Union ordered a replica. It only included a head and an arm, which were placed on Lake Median to give the illusion that the rest of the statue's body was submerged in water. Some students were offended by this, and the Union issued checks for 60 cents to each of them.
The mock-up statue was eventually set on fire under mysterious circumstances. Nevertheless, the pranksters were not discouraged. They built another one after they were reelected to office.
3. David Copperfield and the Vanishing Statue
Illusionist David Seth Kotkin, better known as David Copperfield, made the Statue of Liberty vanish before a live audience in 1983.
For the trick, Copperfield set up two towers on stage, with an arch and a curtain that obscured the Statue of Liberty from view. As the curtains closed, the stage slowly rotated. When the curtains were drawn back, the statue was gone, hidden behind one of the towers, with Lady Liberty nowhere in sight.
Copperfield had also arranged a ring of light around Lady Liberty and placed another light next to her. As the stage turned, his assistants simply turned off the lights around Lady Liberty and switched on the other one.
2. The Ghost of Bedloe’s Island
It is said that Captain William Kidd—a pirate hunter who may have also been a pirate himself—buried his treasure on Liberty Island, known as Bedloe’s Island in the past. In 1892, two soldiers from Fort Wood on the island set out to find this hidden fortune.
Just after midnight, a loud scream echoed through the base, waking everyone. One of the treasure hunters, Carpenter, was found in an agitated and hysterical state, while Gibbs had passed out. The two men had been digging in search of Captain Kidd’s rumored treasure when they uncovered a box. As they tried to take it, Gibbs claimed to have seen a bizarre creature with black skin, horns, large wings, and a tail. Carpenter also witnessed a strange beast but described it as red, wingless, and moving in a way that seemed impossible.
When the creature appeared, Carpenter fled in terror, but Gibbs remained frozen in shock. He believed the apparition to be the ghost of Captain Kidd, who allegedly blew sulfur into his face, knocking him out. Yet, when the guards arrived, there was no sign of the creature—or even the box.
1. Construction
The concept of building the Statue of Liberty was first proposed by French writer Edouard Pene de Laboulaye, who hired Bartholdi for the project. Bartholdi visited the United States in 1871 and selected Bedloe's Island as the location for the statue. It was agreed that France would fund the statue's creation, while the US would finance and build the pedestal that would support it.
Originally, the statue's framework was intended to be designed by French architect Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, but after his death in 1879, Gustave Eiffel, who later designed the Eiffel Tower, took over the task. It's said that Bartholdi's mother was the model for the statue’s face. In France, various events and exhibitions were organized to gather funds, while the US raised money through prizefights and auctions.
The statue's head and crown, completed ahead of the rest of the body, were displayed in Paris and Madison Square Park in New York to raise funds for the pedestal. However, construction of the pedestal was delayed in 1885 due to a lack of funds. Cities like Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Cleveland offered to fund the pedestal if the statue was relocated to them. Joseph Pulitzer, publisher of the World newspaper, started a campaign criticizing both the wealthy for not contributing and the middle class for waiting for the wealthy to act. This spurred many to donate.
The statue was finished and shipped to the United States in May 1885, with the pedestal completed by April 22, 1886. Finally, the statue was dedicated on October 28, 1886, making it a decade-late gift. You can find photos of its construction here.
It Wasn’t Always Green
The Statue of Liberty was initially a reddish-brown color, but its current green hue is the result of a process known as patination.
Patination occurs when copper reacts with the air, turning it a blue-green shade. It took about 25 years for the Statue of Liberty to change from its original reddish-brown color. In 1906, while the copper was still undergoing this transformation, politicians grew concerned and Congress allocated $62,000 to have it painted. The plan caused an uproar and was eventually abandoned.
On the positive side, the patina serves as a protective coating for the statue, preventing the copper from deteriorating further.
