Now there’s something you don’t see every day, but it is something that was familiar to Parisians during the late 1800s. The Statue of Liberty began construction in 1877, and was completed piece by piece. The statue was completed in Paris before being shipped to the United States.
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| The Statue of Liberty in Paris |
What many don’t know is that the Statue of Liberty almost wasn’t built. The New York World, a newspaper at the time, started a fundraising drive for the $100,000 required to build the Statue’s pedestal. In an agreement beforehand, the French agreed to fund the statue while the United States was responsible for building the pedestal.
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| Statue of Liberty’s head at the 1878, photo by Albert Fernique in Wikimedia Commons |
The donation goal was ultimately met, and the Statue was dedicated in 1886. It’s still funny to see that a New York icon was once prominent in Paris, and it’s remarkable that technology allowed the transport and rebuilding of such a complicated monument all the way back in the nineteenth century.
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