The ferry swings out into the harbour, the Manhattan skyline falls behind, and there she is: green copper against the sky, torch raised high, growing larger with every minute.

A gift from France

Liberty Enlightening the World is a colossal neoclassical sculpture of a robed, crowned woman on Liberty Island in New York Harbor. A gift from the people of France, it was designed by the sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, with its metal framework built by Gustave Eiffel, and dedicated on 28 October 1886. In 1865 the French historian and abolitionist Édouard de Laboulaye proposed a monument for the centennial of American independence; France paid for the statue and the United States built the pedestal. The statue was built in France, shipped over in crates and assembled on what was then Bedloe's Island.

The symbols

Inspired by Libertas, the Roman goddess of liberty, she holds a torch in her right hand and in her left a tablet inscribed JULY IV MDCCLXXVI, the date of the Declaration of Independence. Under her left foot lie a broken chain and shackle, marking the abolition of slavery after the Civil War. Before the statue was finished, the torch-bearing arm was shown at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia and then in Madison Square Park until 1882. Public access to the torch has been barred since 1916.

Visiting

Tickets are sold only by Statue City Cruises: adult general admission is $26.00, and pedestal or crown tickets $26.30. Pedestal and crown access needs a separate reservation and often sells out months ahead; the crown is a climb of 162 steps from the statue's feet, with no elevator. Ferries leave from Battery Park, where the ticket office and security are in Castle Clinton, or from Liberty State Park in Jersey City. The time on your ticket is when to join the security line, and waits can exceed an hour in summer.

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  Pedestal Reserve in advance.
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  Crown 162 steps; book months ahead.
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  Battery Park Ferry departure in Manhattan.