Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty, the most
enduring symbol of New York City - and indeed, the USA - can trace
its unlikely origins to a pair of Parisian Republicans. In 1865,
political activist Edouard René Lefebvre de Laboulaye and sculptor
Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi went to a dinner party and came away with
the notion of building a monument honoring the American conception
of political freedom, which they would then donate to the Land of
Opportunity. Twenty-one years later, on 28 October 1886, the 151ft
(45m)
Liberty Enlightening the World, modeled on the Colossus
of Rhodes, was finally unveiled in New York Harbor before President
Grover Cleveland and a harbor full of tooting ships. It's a 354-step
climb to the statue's crown, the equivalent of climbing a 22-story
building, and if you want to tackle it, start early to avoid the
crowds - it's hard to contemplate the American dream with your nose
to the tail of the person in front.
