The Statue of Liberty was built to celebrate the birth of the United States of America and to commemorate the friendship between that republic and the republic of France.
It stands on Bedloe’s Island (now renamed Liberty Island) at the mouth of New York harbour, in accordance with the wishes of the sculptor Frederic Bartholdi.
The plan for the monument originated in France. The cost of the statue was met by French people, while the money for the 300-foot pedestal was raised in the United States.
Although the monument was not unveiled until 1886, the idea was conceived at the end of the 18th Century when France and United States were the only big democratic republics in existence.
Under the 150-foot statue, symbol of freedom and equality, is a moving poem, inscribed inside the pedestal. In this poem the New Colossus, the writer, Emma Lazarus, invited the tired, poor and homeless to come to America in search of Liberty.
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