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Welcome to the Statue of Liberty!
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore;
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
November 2, 1883
Emma Lazarus (1849 - 1887)
The Statue of Liberty, formerly known as "Liberty Enlightening the World",
was the brainchild of French sculptor Auguste Bartholdi, a gift from France
to America. Its construction took hundreds of workers working 7 days a week,
10 hours a day, 9 years to complete in 1884. 350 statue pieces were packed
into 214 crates and shipped from France to New York. The statue was
reconstructed on Bedloe Island, now called Liberty Island, in New York
harbor because this was where people would get their first view of the New
World as they sailed into the harbor. The statue is a universal symbol of
freedom that welcomes all immigrants coming to America.
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