The Statue of Liberty is 93 meters long and was designed in Paris by French sculptor Auguste Bartholdi. How was this heavy sculpture transported to New York in 1886?
Rafa Mingorance, author of the YouTube channel New York Live, Which is explained in this video:
Text by Rafa Mingorance:
When Auguste Bartholdi learned about the end of slavery in the United States, he was very moved and thought he should do something. It kept going around his head until he had a big idea. He will make a bronze statue to symbolize the alliance of the French and American people to defend freedom, equality and brotherhood.
But once it was made, it had to be moved. There was no cargo ship like now. Therefore, when completing the first sketch of the statue, Balsodi was worried about finding a place to place the statue.
In 1871, the sculptor went to the United States and decided on the spot to make Bedlow Island (now known as Liberty Island) an ideal place.
After returning to Paris, Bartodi called the engineer Gustave Eiffel. He wants me to help him create the internal structure to support the huge copper plates that make up the sculpture.
They need 210 wooden boxes to store materials.
When they finish it, they must take it apart. They divide the work into pieces, just like playing Lego. They need 210 wooden boxes to store materials. These fragments weighed 7 kg to 4 tons. After completion, they took the train to the port town of Rouen on the banks of the Seine.
Unpack the head of the Statue of Liberty delivered on June 17, 1885.
What was the closest thing they had to the cargo ship at the time? Well, a warship, they chose a battleship called Iser.
Bartholdi is very worried about the weight of the cargo. If the ship encounters storms and big waves, it is at risk of splitting in half and sinking into the Atlantic Ocean. The danger must be avoided at all costs, which is why the distribution of goods in the warehouse must be carefully studied.
On May 20, 1885, the shipment was completed and the ship sailed to its destination, New York. According to the chronicle, Izer spent two days refueling coal on Faial Island in the Azores.
As Bartholdi had foreseen, the ship had to deal with rough seas and countless storms during the first half of its voyage.
After 27 days in the ocean, you can see the American horizon in the distance. When Isère arrived in New York Harbor, thousands of people welcomed it.
On October 28, 1886, the Statue of Liberty was unveiled on its granite base. The bill is to commemorate the centennial of the independence of the United States.
The crown and feet of the statue before packing.
At that time, the statue had a typical red-brown copper color, but an accident happened twenty years later. It has changed color. It has the blue-green patina that we all know today. How is such a change possible? Is there a Tom Bob style street painter? No, it’s not at all. This is the chemical reaction that occurs when copper comes into contact with air and oxygen in water.
The Isére returned to the port of Brest in France after a famous delivery, and began to misfortune. A few years later, the iron in the hull suffered irreparable damage, and they decided to use the ship to store coal.
During the Second World War, the German army took him to the Loriente submarine base.
When the war was about to end, the Nazis sunk it, and today it is located on the bottom of the sea.
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