Original photo by Tom Coe/ Unsplash
Lady Liberty opted to go green long before most New Yorkers. In 1885, French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi dismantled his gleaming copper-skinned creation — a gift to the U.S. from the French people — into 350 pieces for its voyage across the Atlantic. The statue was eventually rebuilt atop Bedloe’s Island (now called Liberty Island) in New York Harbor, but during the next two decades or so, the landmark underwent a prominent color change.
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It's a factAfter completing his design for the phonograph in 1877, the prolific inventor wanted to install one inside Lady Liberty. Edison envisioned a statue that could deliver speeches at a volume that reached Manhattan’s northernmost edge.
The now-familiar minty tint is actually a patina, a common coating that forms on copper as well as its alloys brass and bronze. The patina is a result of the chemical reactions the statue has endured in its environment, an urban center surrounded by water. Over the years, the copper has reacted to oxygen, sulfuric acid, chloride, and other components of the surrounding air and water, changing its mineral composition in a gradual evolution. Today, chemists believe the seafoam-green hue has stabilized. And while there’s occasionally been talk of repainting the statue or polishing off her patina, public sentiment — and input from copper manufacturers — has kept “Liberty Enlightening the World” from being returned to her initial metallic sheen. Fortunately, the patina is protective, which means Liberty’s chameleonlike qualities actually help preserve her.
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“The New Colossus,” the poem on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, was written by poet Emma ______.
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“The New Colossus,” the poem on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, was written by poet Emma Lazarus.
The Statue of Liberty shares a designer with the Eiffel Tower.
Lady Liberty’s first internal designer, Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, died in 1879, so Bartholdi asked bridgemaker Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel to take over the job. Eiffel improved on the existing blueprints by adding a giant central support structure as foundation for the truss work holding up the copper exterior. This tactic increased the structure’s flexibility, making it less susceptible to cracking or warping. During windy spells, the Statue of Liberty can sway up to 3 inches in any direction — slightly more than the top of the Eiffel Tower. Once his work was complete, Eiffel engineered his namesake showpiece between 1887 and 1889.
Jenna is a writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Hollywood Reporter, and New York Magazine.
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