Q: What is the story behind the Statue of Liberty?

A: The Statue of Liberty was originally a present sent by France to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the independence of America. Some parts of it were exhibited at the Philadelphia Expo in 1876 and again two years later in Paris.

French architect Frederic Auguste Bartholdi came up with the idea while Gustave Eiffel designed its steel frame. Bartholdi finished the blueprint in 1889 and then spent over a decade building it from 1874 to 1886.

The statue was displayed at two consecutive expos while it was still under construction. An arm holding a torch appeared in Philadelphia to signify freedom from tyranny, while the head was seen for the first time two years later in Paris.

Although it was officially gifted to America on July 6, 1884, the statue did not arrive there until one year later as it first needed to be divided into 200 parts and transported by tugboat from Lyons to New York. It finally arrived in June of 1885 and was inaugurated in the city that October.