Statue of Liberty dedicated - Oct 28, 1886 - HISTORY.com Statue of Liberty dedicated Publisher A+E Networks The Statue of Liberty, a gift of friendship from the people of France to the people of the United States, is dedicated in New York Harbor by President Grover Cleveland. Originally known as “Liberty Enlightening the World,” the statue was proposed by the French historian Edouard de Laboulaye to commemorate the Franco-American alliance during the American Revolution. Designed by French sculptor Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi, the 151-foot statue was the form of a woman with an uplifted arm holding a torch. Its framework of gigantic steel supports was designed by Eugene-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc and Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel, the latter famous for his design of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. In February 1877, Congress approved the use of a site on New York Bedloe’s Island, which was suggested by Bartholdi. In May 1884, the statue was completed in France, and three months later the Americans laid the cornerstone for its pedestal in New York Harbor.

In June 1885, the dismantled Statue of Liberty arrived in the New World, enclosed in more than 200 packing cases. Its copper sheets were reassembled, and the last rivet of the monument was fitted on October 28, 1886, during a dedication presided over by President Cleveland and attended by numerous French and American dignitaries. On the pedestal was inscribed “The New Colossus,” a sonnet by American poet Emma Lazarus that welcomed immigrants to the United States with the declaration, “Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, / The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. / Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me.

/ I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” In 1892, Ellis Island, adjacent to Bedloe’s Island, opened as the chief entry station for immigrants to the United States, and for the next 32 years more than 12 million immigrants were welcomed into New York harbor by the sight of “Lady Liberty.” In 1924, the Statue of Liberty was made a national monument, and in 1956 Bedloe’s Island was renamed Liberty Island. The statue underwent a major restoration in the 1980s. Related Videos Today in History - June 19 | Library of Congress Library of Congress Today in History - June 19 June 19 Listen to this page Statue of Liberty The Statue of Liberty arrived at its permanent home at Bedloe’s Island in New York Harbor on June 19, 1885, aboard the French frigate Isere. A gift of friendship from the people of France to the people of the United States, the 151-foot-tall statue was created to commemorate the centennial of the American Declaration of Independence .

Designed by sculptor Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi and officially titled Liberty Enlightening the World, the Statue of Liberty has symbolized freedom and democracy to the nation and to the world for over 120 years. Statue of Liberty , Thomas A. Edison, Inc., 1898. The Life of a City: Early Films of New York, 1898-1906 The statue is constructed of hand-shaped copper sheets, assembled on a framework of steel supports designed by engineers Eugene-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc and Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel. For transit to America, the figure was broken down into 350 separate pieces and packed in 214 crates. The Statue of Liberty sits within the star-shaped walls of the former Fort Wood, rising to a height of 305 feet on a pedestal designed by architect Richard Morris Hunt. The pedestal was built using funds raised by the American people through benefits, charity auctions, and individual donations—some as small as a few pennies each. The Statue of Liberty faces to the east, greeting incoming ships on their arrival while also looking back toward her birthplace in France.

President Grover Cleveland dedicated the statue on October 28, 1886, before thousands of spectators. With the 1892 opening of the nearby Ellis Island Immigration Station, Bartholdi’s Liberty would welcome more than 12 million immigrants to the United States. Emma Lazarus’s sonnet “The New Colossus,” originally composed in 1883 as part of the national fundraising effort, was affixed to the statue’s pedestal in 1903. Its poignant lines celebrate America’s role as a haven to peoples of the world in search of freedom: Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door! Emma Lazarus, “The New Colossus,” 1883. Statue of Liberty , Photograph 192: New Torch and Flame in Place; Workers Beginning to Dismantle Scaffolding , Jet Lowe, photographer, 1985.

Built in America: Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record, 1933-Present For his 1949 Broadway musical Miss Liberty, Irving Berlin, himself an immigrant from Russia, set music to Emma Lazarus’s iconic poem . It is the only song in the Irving Berlin canon for which he used someone else’s words. First designated a monument in 1924 and transferred to the National Park Service’s care in 1933, the Statue of Liberty National Monument’s boundaries expanded in 1956 to include both the renamed Liberty Island and Ellis Island within a single site. Named a UNESCO World Heritage Site External in 1984, the Statue of Liberty underwent a major restoration for its own centennial, in 1986. Twelve years after the statue’s installation, Thomas Edison’s motion picture company filmed the Statue of Liberty . This film is available online through The Life of a City: Early Films of New York, 1898-1906 . Browse the list of film titles to find other views of the city at the turn of the century. By World War I, the Statue of Liberty was firmly established as an American icon.

Search Historic American Sheet Music, 1850-1920 External on Statue of Liberty to examine sheet music illustrated with images of Lady Liberty. See, for example, “ Good-Bye Broadway, Hello France External ” published in 1917. Search on the term Bartholdi in the collection The Nineteenth Century in Print: Periodicals External to find articles concerning the “Bartholdi Colossus.” Read, for example, a brief article entitled “The Inauguration of Bartholdi’s Liberty Statue” which the journal Manufacturer and Builder carried in its November 1886 issue. Search the same collection on the name Lazarus to learn more about the poet’s interest in immigration issues. The collections include many pictures of the landmark. To find them, search across the collections featuring Photos, Prints on the term Statue of Liberty. The Marshall Plan On June 19, 1947, the British and French foreign ministers issued a joint communiqué inviting twenty-two European nations to send representatives to Paris to participate in designing a plan for rebuilding war-torn Europe. In his Harvard University commencement address two weeks earlier, U.S. Secretary of State George C.

Marshall had called for a massive European aid package designed to stabilize the world economy and discourage the spread of communism. More than 12.4 billion dollars were transferred to Western Europe under the Economic Recovery Program known as the “Marshall Plan.” Not completely altruistic, the legislation creating the plan specified that aid dollars be spent in the U.S. It is logical that the United States should do whatever it is able to do to assist in the return of normal economic health in the world, without which there can be no political stability and no assured peace. By Caitlin Badowski, Accessions Officer As the Accessions Officer here at NPM, I spend a lot of time looking through the files that have been kept for all the objects accepted (accessioned) into the permanent collection since the 1880’s, when the National Philatelic Collection was first started. These accession files are sorted by number, and house all the information that is available regarding the origins of the objects in the collection. These days, the collections staff takes great care in making sure every object we receive has its identifying accession number clearly marked in an unobtrusive spot.

Unfortunately for the collections department, the museum received thousands of objects in the years before such labeling was considered important. Back in storage there are many objects that are not currently labeled, which can sometimes make identifying them very difficult. What some might consider a nuisance, I consider quite fun: I get to play detective in our accession files. 2c Washington single line watermark single on cover I recently came upon a mysterious cover in the collection (above). I made a few notes on some immediate clues the cover had to offer. My first clue was the advertisement printed on the left side. Even some of the more vague files would make a point to list this as an “advertising cover.” That began to narrow my search. My second clue was the number “6” and the letter “C” interspersed in the wavy killer of the cancel. I filed these clues away in case they might help me later. Detail showing cancel with numerals I flipped the cover over to look at the reverse. In tiny lettering, I noticed a faint, purple stamped marking. I thought I could make out the word “Samuel” and something like “May” or “Ray.” Now that was a clue!

I started searching through our early donor records– 3x5 index cards that are sometimes nearly 100 years old. I was happily shocked to find a Mr. Samuel Ray in the files, who donated objects to the museum (the National Museum of History and Technology at the time of the donations) several times between 1966 and 1972. Detail showing faint stamped lettering on reverse Reverse of cover, now with the correct accession number clearly marked One of the files I pulled to look through described a donation by Samuel Ray in 1970 of seventy-four covers, all showing numerals applied in the cancels. Bingo! I had found the correct accession file for the cover! The cover, a 2c Washington single line watermark single on cover, is now correctly identified in the collection records and in our database. Look out for this object in the upcoming National Stamp Collection exhibit in the William H. Gross Stamp Gallery ! By Stephen Peck, Web Team Intern On this day, in 1885, the defining landmark of the United States arrived in New York harbor.

It had traveled across the Atlantic from France, but that short trip was only a small moment in the winding journey behind the creation of the quintessential icon of liberty and freedom: the statue of Liberty Enlightening the World. 20 years prior, a young sculptor named Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi sat quietly at a dinner party listening to the host, Edouard Rene Lefebvre de Laboulaye, speak. The small group of Frenchmen assembled at the party were what many at the time would call “radicals.” They were citizens opposed to the reign of Napoleon III and in favor of a Republican government. Laboulaye praised the relationship between France and the United States, an alliance dating back to the Revolutionary War, when French assistance to the colonial cause proved to be a decisive reason why the war was won. (Pictured below are two stamps commemorating that alliance: 1952, 3c Marquis de Lafayette and the 1978, 13c French Alliance stamp) Laboulaye referred to the United States and France as “Two Sisters,” each with a love of liberty.

Thinking aloud, Laboulaye asked how wonderful it would be if a monument could be erected in America from the French celebrating their alliance and similar beliefs in democracy and liberty. Bartholdi heard these words and was fascinated. The spark that would light Lady Liberty’s eternal torch had been ignited. Bartholdi (pictured at left in 1985m 22c commemorating his work) continued to work on other projects. It wasn’t until 1871 when things got serious regarding the creation of a French statue to be given to the United States. After speaking with Laboulaye, Bartholdi set sail to America with one goal: “I will try to glorify the Republic and Liberty over there, in the hope that someday I will find it again here.” Armed only with a sketch and a small model of the statue he entitled “Liberty Enlightening the World,” Bartholdi met with some of America’s elite, including President Ulysses S. Grant. The two countries agreed that France would provide the statue and the U.S. would provide its pedestal and location.

Upon his arrival in New York harbor, Bartholdi set his eyes on Bedloe’s Island, a place he deemed a perfect resting place for the statue. “The gateway to America,” he called the location. His vision was generally well received in America, but fundraising efforts did not match the enthusiasm. Back in France, the monetary support slowly trickled in once the political situation settled down in 1875. Bartholdi began construction at the foundry of Gaget, Gauthier and Co. With copper entirely donated by outside merchants, he began forming his Liberty statue. It was to be a female figure (some say modeled after Libertas, the Roman goddess of freedom), cloaked in flowing robes, adorned with a seven pointed crown representing the seven continents, and holding a torch aloft. The statue itself was to be surprisingly light for its size. Its outer copper skin is only 2.5 millimeters thick and has an intricate, internal steel framework designed by Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel. As construction continued on the colossal statue (from base to torch it was to be 152 feet tall), fundraising became the big issue.

The French eventually raised all the funds they needed by 1879 thanks to clever lotteries and auctions, but efforts in the States moved much slower. The economic downturn in America set off by the panic of 1873 caused the Statue of Liberty to tumble down the list of priorities in the collective minds of the American public. As the New York Times wrote, “No true patriot can countenance any such expenditures for bronze females in the present state of our finances.” The United States was only in charge of constructing the pedestal upon which the statue was to sit. The goal was to raise $100,000, but fundraising was so bad that construction of the pedestal stopped altogether in 1884. The future of the Statue of Liberty looked grim. Until Joseph Pulitzer, and the American public, saved the day. In March of 1885, Pulitzer (pictured at right in the 1947, 3c stamp) began a campaign to raise $100,000 for the completion of the pedestal in his newspaper, The World. He promised to publish the names of everybody who donated, no matter the amount.

Pulitzer wrote that the statue was paid for by “the masses of the French people. Let us respond in like manner. Let us not wait for the millionaires to give this money. It is not a gift from the millionaires of France to the millionaires of America, but a gift of the whole people of France to the whole people of America.” The campaign captivated America and was mutually beneficial for the pedestal to be completed ($100,000 was raised over four months from 120,000 different donors) and for The World (it became the newspaper with the largest circulation in North America). On June 17, 1885, the statue, broken up into 350 pieces like a gigantic jigsaw puzzle, arrived in New York harbor aboard the French ship Isere. It was assembled on site as soon as the pedestal was assembled. On October 28, 1886, the Statute of Liberty was officially dedicated. The unveiling was an all day party complete with the first ever ticker tape parade (traders threw rolls of ticker tape out of the windows of Wall Street), and an address by President Grover Cleveland.

“[Its] stream of light shall pierce the darkness of ignorance and man’s oppression until Liberty enlightens the world,” Cleveland said. In 1903, a plaque with “The New Colossus,” a poem by Emma Lazarus written in 1883 as part of the fundraising efforts, was affixed to the pedestal. It contains the iconic lines, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” (Immigrants' first image of America was the Statue of Liberty as they sailed into the harbor. They were honored in this 1998, 32c, double-sided stamp pictured below) For over 120 years, with broken chains underfoot, tablet in hand, and torch held high, Liberty has welcomed thousands of immigrants to her shores and has served as a constant reminder that independence and human liberty are values worth fighting for.

As described by UNESCO when the monument was designated as a World Heritage Site in 1984, the Statue of Liberty is a “masterpiece of the human spirit” that “endures as a highly potent symbol- inspiring contemplation, debate and protest- of ideals such as liberty, peace, human rights, abolition of slavery, democracy and opportunity.” By Stephen Peck, Web Team Intern By the time Thurgood Marshall was appointed to the United States Supreme Court on this day in 1967, he had already made his mark on the “highest court in the land.” One of the most influential voices of the African-American civil rights movement, Marshall won more cases before the Supreme Court during his time as chief counsel of the NAACP and as U.S. Solicitor General than any American in history [1] . Nearly all of those cases involved Marshall dismantling the laws of legalized discrimination and creating fairness of opportunities for all. Marshall was born on July 2, 1908 in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1925 he enrolled at Lincoln University in Chester County, Pennsylvania. One of his classmates at Lincoln was the famous author, Langston Hughes (Pictured right).

Upon graduating Lincoln, he applied to the University of Maryland law school, only to be denied entrance because of his race. And so began Marshall’s crusade against the injustices disguised as “laws” that were all too common in America. Marshall enrolled at the Howard University Law School where he forged a relationship with the dean of the institution, Charles Hamilton Houston (pictured at left in the 2009 42c Civil Rights Pioneer issue stamp with Walter White). Houston was a brilliant man who graduated from Harvard law and had dedicated himself to instructing a new generation of African American lawyers with the ability to attack and bring down segregation in America. [2] Thurgood Marshall was his star. Marshall’s first case out of graduate school was a successful lawsuit leveled against the University of Maryland, this time for not admitting an African American named Donald Gaines Murray. [3] Marshall was just getting warmed up. He followed Houston to New York to become a staff lawyer for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Four years later, he was named chief of the NAACP Legal Defense.

[4] In this capacity, Marshall tore down state laws that denied African Americans the right to vote in primaries and provided for “separate but equal” facilities for African Americans at universities. [5] His crowning achievement was his work in the case Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka (commemorated in the 1954 37c stamp at right). Using arguments still studied in law schools today for their excellence, Marshall convinced the Supreme Court to rule that segregation was illegal and unconstitutional since it violated the 14th amendment. His tireless work in the courthouse championing the cause of those oppressed, sparked the American civil rights movement and garnered Marshall national attention. He was appointed to the US Court of Appeals by President John F. Kennedy in 1961. He worked his way up the federal legal system until President Lyndon B. Johnson (pictured at right in the 1973 8c stamp) appointed him to the Supreme Court on June 13, 1967.

Of appointing Marshall, the first African American to be appointed to the Supreme Court, Johnson said, “I believe it’s the right thing to do, the right time to do it, the right man, and the right place.” [6] Marshall was officially confirmed by a Senate vote on August 30th, 1967. During his 24 years of service on the highest court in America, he never backed down from his ongoing battle with discrimination against all people who needed a voice to fight for them. Marshall served on the court until 1991 when he had to step down because of health issues. He passed away on January 24, 1993. According to author Juan Williams, author of a Marshall biography, Thurgood Marshall did more to erase the color line in America than anyone in history, even moreso than Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

and Malcolm X: “It was Thurgood Marshall, working through the courts to eradicate the legacy of slavery and destroying the racist segregation system of Jim Crow, who had an even more profound and lasting effect on race relations than either King or X.” [7] While King was captivating a nation through peaceful and passionate calls for equality and Malcolm X was stirring up black pride through fiery words and actions, Marshall could be found in a courthouse, rewriting laws that would open new doors for African Americans all over the country. By Stephen Peck, Web Team Intern “He snatched the lightning from the sky and the sceptre from tyrants.” — Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, speaking of Benjamin Franklin On this day in 1752, Benjamin Franklin added another chapter to his storied life. All it took was a kite, a key, and a thunderstorm. The iconic experiment in which Franklin proved the electrical nature of lightning took place today, 259 years ago. Franklin had been interested in electricity for some time before his kite took flight. The prevailing thought before the 1740s was that electricity consisted of two different states, vitreous and resinous.

Franklin proved that there were indeed two separate forms of electricity, which he called positive and negative, but they were of the same “electrical fluid” and were not completely different things. Franklin also proved that electricity moved fluidly, moving from positively charged areas to negatively charged areas. Over the decade-long period in which he studied electricity, Franklin coined electrical terms such as battery, conductor, plus, minus, positive, and negative that are still used today. Franklin took to the sky in 1752 to prove that electricity and lightning were one and the same. His rudimentary kite consisted of a simple handkerchief stretched over a stick frame. He attached a long string with a key near the end of its length and went out to a field. According to Joseph Priestly, who published a detailed account of the experiment some years later, Franklin only informed his son of his intentions: “Dreading the ridicule which too commonly attends unsuccessful attempts in science, he communicated his intended experiment to nobody but his son.” But there was no need to worry. The experiment worked perfectly. The string became wet from the rain and began to conduct electricity from the above storm cloud.

A simple touch of his hand to the key transferred an electrical charge and the rest, as they say, is history. The moment was captured in a painting called “Franklin Taking Electricity from the Sky” by Benjamin West. This image adorns the red, 1956 3c Franklin stamp which was issued to commemorate the 250th anniversary of his birth (pictured above). However, this was but one achievement among many in the illustrious life of Ben Franklin. In addition to being a scientist, he was an inventor, writer, postmaster, publisher, businessman, and civil servant. His many talents were commemorated in a 2006 commemorative series (pictured above and right) celebrating the 300th anniversary of his birth. Franklin was also an influential politician and a brilliant diplomat. He has the distinction of being the only person to have signed the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Alliance with France, the Treaty of Paris, and the United States Constitution. Each of these events were commemorated with a stamp (pictured above and below), and in each one, Benjamin Franklin can be found. Franklin can be found on more US postage stamps than anyone in history, save for George Washington.

For a man that played such a large role in the creation of this country through his words and deeds, such an honor seems only appropriate. Grover Cleveland dedicates Statue of Liberty - Oct 28, 1886 - HISTORY.com Grover Cleveland dedicates Statue of Liberty Share this: Grover Cleveland dedicates Statue of Liberty Author Grover Cleveland dedicates Statue of Liberty URL Publisher A+E Networks On this day in 1886, President Grover Cleveland dedicates the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. The statue’s full name was Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World. It had been a gift from French citizens to their American friends in recognition of the two countries’ commitment to liberty and democracy and their alliance during the American Revolutionary War, which had begun 110 years earlier. The 151-foot copper statue was built in France and shipped to New York in 350 separate parts. It arrived in the city on June 17, 1886, and over the next several months was reassembled while electricians worked to wire the torch to light up at night.

As President Cleveland accepted the statue on behalf of American citizens, he declared “we will not forget that liberty here made her home; nor shall her chosen altar be neglected.” The statue quickly became a symbol of America’s humanitarianism and willingness to take in the world’s “tired, poor and huddled masses”—in the words of the poem by Emma Lazarus inscribed on the monument’s pedestal—who yearned for freedom and a better life. “Lady Liberty” was originally intended to work as a functional lighthouse and, from 1886 to 1901, the statue was operated by the United States Lighthouse Board. In 1901, the War Department took over its operation and maintenance. The statue and the island on which it stands, now known as Liberty Island, were together proclaimed a national monument by President Calvin Coolidge on October 15, 1924, and, in 1933, the National Park Service assumed oversight of the monument. In 1982, President Ronald Reagan established a commission tasked with restoring the deteriorating Lady Liberty in time for a centennial celebration in 1986.

A joint French-American preservation and rehabilitation group cleaned the statue and replaced the glass and metal torch with gold leaf. The original torch is on display in the statue’s lobby. Today, the Statue of Liberty is a major tourist attraction, hosting as many as 5 million people every year. Although access to the statue’s crown was restricted following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, tourists can still visit Liberty Island, and the statue’s pedestal observation deck and museum. Related Videos Statue of Liberty Statue of Liberty Statue of Liberty , originally uploaded by cheikhyass . The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World, a hollow colossus composed of thinly pounded copper sheets over a steel framework, was designed in Paris by the French sculptor Frederic Bartholdi, in collaboration with the French engineer Gustave Eiffel, who was responsible for its frame, intended as a gift from France for the centenary of American independence in 1876. Its design and construction were recognized at the time as one of the greatest technical achievements of the 19th century, and, when finally dedicated a decade later, it was hailed as a bridge between art and engineering.

Atop its pedestal, designed by noted American architect Richard Morris Hunt, on an island at the entrance to New York Harbour, the Statue has since welcomed millions of immigrants who arrived in the United States by sea. Statue of Libery and Ellis Island Circle Line Ferry , originally uploaded by Oquendo . Statue of Liberty was included as a World Heritage Site on the basis of Cultural Criteria I and VI in 1984. Criterion I. This colossal statue is a masterpiece of the human spirit. The collaboration between the sculptor Bartholdi and the engineer Eiffel resulted in the production of a technological wonder that brings together art and engineering in a new and powerful way. Criterion VI. The symbolic value of the Statue of Liberty lies in two basic factors. It was presented by France with the intention of affirming the historical alliance between the two nations. It was financed by international subscription in recognition of the establishment of the principles of freedom and democracy by the U.S. Declaration of Independence, which the Statue holds in her left hand. The Statue also soon became and has endured as a symbol of the migration of people from many countries into the United States in the late 19th and the early 20th centuries.

She endures as a highly potent symbol – inspiring contemplation, debate and protest – of ideals such as liberty, peace, human rights, abolition of slavery, democracy and opportunity. Aerial view of Statue of Liberty with Ellis Island in the background , originally uploaded by PixelFixer . Brief Historical Context surrounding Statue of Liberty. During the second half of the 19th century, the population of the United States of America nearly doubled in thirty years, from 38,500,000 inhabitants in 1870 to 76,000,000 in 1900. This prodigious growth is principally due to immigration, which reached, at that time, an unprecedented high. Between 1840 and 1880, 9,438,000 foreigners landed in the United States, among which, besides the British, were 31% Germans, 19% Irish and 10% Scandinavian. Between 1880 and 1914, the number of immigrants reached 22,000,000, this time deriving mainly from southern and eastern Europe.

Ellis Island Museum - Immigrant's Luggage , originally uploaded by jeffpearce . It is within the context of the immigration information above that the order for the Statue of Liberty was given to the French sculptor, Frederic Auguste Bartholdi. The statue, 151 feet (46 meters) in height, was officially inaugurated in 1886 on Liberty Island, a small island situated at the entrance to New York harbour one kilometer from the landing point of the immigrants, for whom it symbolized the ideals of Washington and Lincoln. Statue of Liberty Area Map - National Park Service (Click on Map for PDF) Older Statue of Liberty Torch , originally uploaded by Eddy~S . Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi - sculptor of Statue of Liberty - NPS Photo. An older version of the Statue of Liberty Torch is located in the pedistal now. The torch was the first item of the statue to be constructed in 1876.

The Statue of Liberty Torch was removed in 1984 due to corrosion, the original torch was modified many times, including the addition of over 200 panes of glass in 1916 by Gutzon Borglum, who also created Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. The addition of the panes of glass leaked water continuously inside the Statue causing corrosion damage. Alexandre Gustave Eiffel - Built the internal structure of the Statue of Liberty - NPS Photo Statue of Liberty - Internal Structure Originally uploaded by Eddie~S . Alexandre Gustave Eiffel created the ingenious load-bearing metal framework on which the copper sheets of the statue were mounted. Eiffel would undertake the construction of the Eiffel Tower shortly after the completion of his work on the Statue of Liberty. Eiffel's framework includes several of the most sophisticated features of the Statue. The general character of his work has been described as of "extraordinary daring, elegance, and refinement" and bearing a "seemingly weightless equipoise," when compared to other structures of the era that rely on a "thick accumulation of elements" for stability.

Eiffel relies on geometry to provide a minimal frame capable of bearing great weight, but also accommodating wind stress in an almost elastic manner. The frame, along with the ingenious manner in which the Statue's skin is attached by floating joints, permits a great resiliency and flexibility, against both wind stress and thermal expansion and contraction. This system, in which all the plates are supported by the central frame rather than resting on one another, is not only an early example of curtain-wall construction, but, because of the construction of the joints, is also "an uncanny prophecy" of stressed-skin construction in aeronautical engineering. Statue of Liberty Interior Framework , originally uploaded by ngotoh . Statue of Liberty History Statue of Liberty was first assembled in Paris in 1883 before it was disassembled and sent to the United States - Engraving from United States World Heritage Nomination Document. Statue of Liberty Origins A history of the Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World must begin with a resume of the career of Edouard Rene de Laboulaye, a French author and professor. The inspiration for the Statue arose from his dream of international friendship, peace, and progress.

His friend Frederic Bartholdi would give form to the idea. The genesis of the Statue lay in their creative collaboration.1 Laboulaye, a notable scholar of the history of law, long admired the United States and its political institutions, and, though he never visited the United States, wrote extensively on American history and government. He was a 19th-century liberal who favored the victory of the North in the American Civil War. Indeed, along with like-minded intellectuals and opinion-makers, he played a significant role in keeping France neutral in that conflict. He saw the Northern victory as a vindication for the Utopian or visionary view he entertained of the United States. The fervor of his sentiments is vividly reflected in the following extract from a letter he wrote to an American friend in Boston in November 1864: Abolish slavery, and the cause of Liberty is won in Europe. For four years, the South has tried to deceive opinion, but the abolition of slavery in the North, and its maintenance in the South has dissipated all false impressions. It will make a great movement of opinion in our favor, and the South will lose its last illusion.

It will fall under the curse of all, and slavery will fall with it. This will be the victory of Humanity and of Liberty.2 Laboulaye's views on America were formed in light of the history, to his day, of relations between France and the United States. Alliance with France had been vital, probably crucial, to American victory in the Revolution. This friendship was sealed in blood, for French soldiers lay buried on American battlefields. Although interrupted by the quasi-war of 1798-99 and several harsh diplomatic disagreements, the formal relations between the compatriot nations had ordinarily been reciprocally warm, and the personal relationships numerous and congenial. To illustrate the latter point, successive changes of regime in France had brought disparate groups of French exiles to the United States. A number of these individuals were illustrious: Chateaubriand, Talleyrand, Albert de Beaumetz, la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, Comte de Ribbing, the future King Louis Philippe, Joseph Bonaparte, and Hyde de Neuville. Many of these figures eventually returned to France; others remained to enrich American culture. France, in a somewhat different way, exerted an attraction on Americans.

In the early and mid-19th century, for example, Americans interested in specialized fields of education and art worked or trained in France. These included James MacNeill Whistler, George P. Healy, Augustus St. Gaudens, William Morris Hunt, and the latter's brother, architect Richard Morris Hunt, who would design the, pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. (Richard Morris Hunt, who studied at the Ecole de Beauxf Arts, assisted Hector Martin Lefuel in the construction of the new Louvre.) Laboulaye employed the good feeling prevailing toward the United States in France as a foil to indict the regime of Napoleon III. He contrasted the spirit and behavior of American leaders, such as Washington, with his Emperor's autocratic political methods. He used his pen to level his criticism in this manner, in such writings as Histoire des Etats-Unis, and he also lectured on the theme. Eventually, Napoleon forced him to stop lecturing on American subjects. Napoleon's fall, however, permitted Laboulaye to re-enter literary and political life. Laboulaye's convictions were to triumph in another way, for they were to be incarnated in sculptural form.

Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, the sculptor of Laboulaye's ideal of Liberty, had trained in painting with the portrait artist Ary Scheffer, in sculpture with Jean-Francois Soitoux and Antoine Etex, and in architecture with Eugene Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc. At 22, Bartholdi executed a twice-lifesize statue of Gen. Jean Rapp, erected in Colmar, the home of both the subject and the sculptor, in 1856. He had thus already shown a tendency toward work in large proportions when, that same year, he first traveled to Egypt. His tour there infused him with admiration for the grand sculptural scale on which the ancient Egyptians had worked, and unquestionably influenced the epic dimensions of his future projects. Bartholdi was in Laboulaye's circle of acquaintances. Laboulaye apparently first suggested a memorial to honor the birth of the American nation and the lasting friendship between France and America to the young sculptor in the summer of 1865, when French popular sentiment toward America had been deeply affected by the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Bartholdi did not at once embrace Laboulaye's idea.

In 1867, on the contrary, he began an effort to persuade Khedive Ismail of Egypt to support construction of a colossal statue for erection at the northern entrance to the Suez Canal, a Franco-Egyptian project then nearing completion through the genius of Ferdinand de Lesseps. Bartholdi journeyed to the opening ceremonies of the canal, in 1869, to promote his project and other building plans in Egypt, but nothing came of his efforts. Bartholdi would later deny any direct connection between the proposed "Progress" or "Egypt Carrying the Light to Asia," and the Statue of Liberty, but the similarities of the two projects, as evidenced by the models Bartholdi prepared, are rather marked. Both featured colossal torch-bearing female deities placed at the entrances to key waterways, where they were intended to serve as lighthouses — and symbols. Bartholdi's papers give evidence that he began to contemplate a project for America in 1869. By the time the idea had formed sufficiently in his mind to inspire him to go to the United States, in 1871, France was suffering the calamitous aftermath of defeat in the Franco-Prussian War.

This conflict touched Bartholdi in several ways. As a soldier, he played an ineffectual role in trying to prevent the seizure of his native Alsace by a resurgent Germany. Along with Lorraine, however, Alsace was torn from France and ceded to the new German Empire. Symbolic manifestations of France's humiliation, to the sculptor, as he pursued his own projects, were the approaching completion of Ernst von Bandel's 28-meter statue of "Arminius," in Westphalia, which bore blatant anti-French inscriptions, and the beginning of Johannes Schilling's "Germania," a 10-meter figure erected at Riidesheim, near the Rhine. In early 1871, at one of the darkest hours of French fortunes, Bartholdi again discussed the prospect of a Franco-American monument with Laboulaye. Laboulaye trusted that the friendship between the two nations would endure, and suggested that the centennial of the United States' independence, then 5 years hence, would be an auspicious time to put in place a memorable symbol of the relationship.

Laboulaye encouraged Bartholdi to go to America and sound out the possibility of joint efforts to erect a suitable monument. Laboulaye's wide circle of correspondents in America would be a distinct aid to Bartholdi. As Bartholdi recalled, Laboulaye said: without any doubt there would be at the hundredth anniversary of the Independence of the United States a movement patriotic and French in America. "Go to see that country," said he to me. "You will study it, you will bring back to us your impressions. Propose to our friends over there to make with us a monument, a common work, in remembrance of the ancient friendship of France and the United States. We will take up a subscription in France. If you find a happy idea, a plan that will excite public enthusiasm, we are convinced that it will be successful on both continents, and we will do a work that will have a far-reaching moral effect.3 Bartholdi indicates that when he arrived in New York Harbor, the plan for the Statue took clear form in his mind. In America, which he toured from coast to coast for 5 months, he was received by President Ulysses S.

Grant, Senator Charles Sumner, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and many others, who offered him hospitality and encouragement. After his return to France, Bartholdi began work on a model. In the years 1871-75, he continued to refine the figure and executed other works. Public fundraising for the Statue in France did not begin in earnest until 1875. Some scholars have suggested that this long delay, which prevented completion of the project in time for the U.S. centennial, arose from the desire of Bartholdi's backers to await an opportune time for the public announcement of a project that had rather explicit political overtones. According to this theory, the Statue was not a proposal that the various factions of monarchists or the radical left could be expected to embrace readily. The political situation in France was, indeed, in flux in the years 1871-75, but equally important, the economic situation was also volatile, making the prospects of a public solicitation doubtful.

The formation of the Franco-American Union in 1875, with Laboulaye as president, in any case, coincided with the definitive rise to power of moderate, or liberal, republicans, including Laboulaye and his circle, in the French Government. For example, a useful connection was established with the appointment of Bartholdi's cousin as the French Minister to the United States. The succeeding years, furthermore, witnessed an extraordinary renaissance of French economic, artistic, intellectual, and scientific vigor; the climate was suited to the accomplishment of the effort to erect the Statue. The energy and confidence of the Statue's supporters are evident in the following extract from the first appeal to the French public, which stated the goal and method that were to be used to erect the Statue: This monument will be executed In common by the two people, associated in this fraternal work, as they were formerly in founding Independence. We shall make a gift of the Statue to our friends of America; they will unite with us to provide the cost of the execution and of the erection of the monument which will serve as a pedestal.

We will thus affirm, by an imperishable souvenir, the friendship which the blood shed by our fathers had sealed in days of yore between the two nations. Let us re-unite to celebrate this fete of modern peoples. It is necessary for us to be harmonious in order to give to this manifestation the start that it ought to have, to be worthy in the end of the past. Let each bring his mite, the smallest subscriptions will be well received. Let the number of signatures express the sentiments of France.4 Despite the economic, intellectual, and political prowess of her prime backers, Liberty was thus not to be financed by either the French central government or a small elite group. The first fundraising efforts of the French committee focused on municipalities, civic associations, and businesses. When these efforts did not yield sufficient funds to meet the costs of construction, a lottery and other devices, including concerts and the sale of models of the Statue, were utilized. These efforts brought in contributions sufficient, by July 1880, to insure the completion of the project, on which Bartholdi and a corps of skilled workmen were already hard at work.

More than 100,000 individuals subscribed, and 180 towns and municipalities. The total contributed was the equivalent of about $400,000. Construction of the Statue Bartholdi supervised construction, in the workshops of Gaget, Gauthier, et Companie at 25 Rue de Chazelles in Paris. The preliminaries to construction included choice of the material, which had to be light, easily worked, and able to resist the maritime climatic conditions to which the Statue would be exposed. Bronze was too heavy. Copper, relatively light and easily worked, was chosen. Another key decision was to utilize an interior skeleton of iron that would support the thin copper sheets of which the Statue's exterior would be composed. Such a "hollow" design would permit maximum ease of access to the interior of the head and the torch. To arrive at the final form of the Statue required a three-step enlargement process. Bartholdi had made various plaster study models of the figure. From one of these, which was 1.25 meters (4 feet) high, he prepared a 2.85-meter (9.3-foot) reproduction.

From the latter, he enlarged to 11 meters (36 feet). This last version was next cut into sections, each of which was then reproduced four times its size in plaster. history | Walking Tour Advisor Walking Tour Advisor “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” GOD BLESS AMERICA! On July 4, 1776, we claimed our independence from Britain and Democracy was born. July 4th has been a federal holiday in the United States since 1941, but the tradition of Independence Day celebrations goes back to the 18th century and the American Revolution (1775-83). In June 1776, representatives of the 13 colonies then fighting in the revolutionary struggle weighed a resolution that would declare their independence from Great Britain. On July 2nd, the Continental Congress voted in favor of independence, and two days later its delegates adopted the Declaration of Independence, a historic document drafted by Thomas Jefferson. From 1776 until the present day, July 4th has been celebrated as the birth of American independence.

Every day thousands leave their homeland to come to the “land of the free and the home of the brave” so they can begin their American Dream. Image from Fact Of The Day Website The United States is truly a diverse nation that is made up of dynamic people. Every year on July 4, Americans celebrate that FREEDOM and INDEPENDENCE with family gatherings, barbecues, picnics. With such growing technology we are learning through the internet about and communicating with people of different nations, with different languages and different races throughout the whole world while bringing the world closer with understanding and knowledge can only benefit all nations. Let’s us never forget the men and women who are fighting to protect OUR HONOR, OUR FREEDOM AND OUR COUNTRY!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!! New York City 17 Responses » Jun 062011 The “New Colossus” The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World was a gift of friendship from the people of France to the people of the United States and is a universal symbol of freedom and democracy.

The Statue of Liberty was dedicated on October 28, 1886, designated as a National Monument in 1924 and restored for her centennial on July 4, 1986. The New Colossus Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. “Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” A Short Story “Coming to America” Just to add my own personal story, one that I am very proud of; I remember seeing the Statue of Liberty when my parents, my brother and I came to America from Germany on April 30, 1958, on a ship called the “SS Berlin”. We arrived in New York in the late afternoon and I remember standing on the pier looking back at the statue which appeared smaller than when we first passed it, just a few hours earlier. I also remember taking a taxi to our first residence in Manhattan in a neighborhood I learned later was called “The Bowery”. It was a small apartment that our sponsors, The Lutheran Church of America” had procured for us. The Bowery in 1958 was not as it is today. There was widespread and open use of alcohol in that neighborhood and I remember having to step over a man who was sleeping it off on the steps of the door to our building. …a bit scary for a child not even 9 years old.

My parents worked day and night for 4 months to get us out of there and into a better apartment. What I remember of the day we came to America is that I was really scared being in a different country and not speaking any English. By the time I started school, however, I already knew some sentences which made it easier for me to make friends. Just 5 years later, I am proud to say we became Americans when we received our citizenship in 1963 Frederic Auguste Bartholdi was a French sculptor born in Alsace. He created many monumental sculptures, his most famous work was the Statue of Liberty. The statue is constructed of copper sheets which are assembled on a framework of steel supports designed by Eugene-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc and Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel . For transit to America, the figure was disassembled into 350 pieces and packed in 214 crates. Four months later, it was reassembled on Bedloe’s Island (renamed Liberty Island in 1956). On October 28, 1886, President Grover Cleveland dedicated the Statue of Liberty before thousands of spectators.

Since the 1892 opening of nearby Ellis Island Immigration Station , Bartholdi’s Liberty has welcomed more than 12,000,000 immigrants to America. Emma Lazarus’s famous lines engraved on the statue’s pedestal are linked to our conception of the statue Americans call “Lady Liberty”: Frederic Bartholdi’s design patent for the Statue of Liberty In 1865 a young French sculptor named Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi went to a banquet near the town of Versailles, where he struck up a conversation with Edouard de Laboulaye , a prominent historian. De Laboulaye, a great admirer of the United States, observed that the country’s centennial was approaching in 1876. He thought it would be a good idea for France to present America with a gift to commemorate the occasion. Bartholdi proposed a giant statue of some kind and thought about it for the next six years. The Statue was a joint effort between America and France and it was agreed upon that the American people were to build the pedestal, and the French people were responsible for the Statue and its assembly here in the United States.

However, lack of funds was a problem on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. In France, public fees, various forms of entertainment, and a lottery were among the methods used to raise funds. In the United States, benefit theatrical events, art exhibitions, auctions and prize fights assisted in providing needed funds. Bartholdi went back to work. He founded a group called the Franco-American Union, comprised of French and American supporters, to help raise money for the statue. He also recruited Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel , soon to become famous for the Eiffel Tower, to design the steel and iron framework to hold the statue up. In the United States, things were harder. There was some enthusiasm, but not as much as in France. It was, after all, a French statue and not everyone was sure the country needed a French statue, even for free. The U.S. Congress did vote unanimously to accept the gift from France, but it didn’t provide any funding for the pedestal, and neither did the city of New York. Neither did the state. By now, the Statue of Liberty’s right hand and torch were finished, so Bartholdi shipped it to the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition and had it put on display.

For a fee of 50¢, visitors could climb a 30-foot steel ladder up the side of the hand and stand on the balcony surrounding the torch. Two years later the statue’s head was displayed in a similar fashion in Paris, giving people a chance to climb up into the head and peek out from the windows in the crown. But while events like these generated a lot of enthusiasm, they didn’t raise as much money as Bartholdi hoped for. In 1883 the U.S. Congress voted down a fresh attempt to provide $100,000 toward the cost of the pedestal; the vote so outraged Joseph Pulitzer, publisher of the New York World, that he launched a campaign in the pages of his newspaper to raise the money. “The Bartholdi statue will soon be on its way to enlighten the world,” he told his readers, “more appropriate would be the gift of a statue of parsimony than a statue of liberty, if this is the appreciation we show of a friendly nation’s sentiment and generosity.” After two months of non-stop haranguing, he managed to raise exactly $135.75 of the $200,000 needed to build the pedestal.

By now the centennial was only two years away. It was obvious that the huge statue couldn’t be designed, financed, built, shipped, and installed on Bedloe’s Island in time for the big celebration. But Bartholdi kept going anyway. Raising the $400,000 he estimated was needed to build the statue in France wasn’t easy. Work stopped frequently when cash ran out, and Bartholdi and his craftspeople missed deadline after deadline. Then in 1880 the Franco-American Union came up with the idea of holding a “Liberty” lottery to raise funds. That did the trick. NOTHING TO STAND ON In June of 1884, work on the statue itself was finished. Bartholdi had erected it in a courtyard next to his studio in Paris. The original plan had been to dismantle it as soon as it was completed, pack it into shipping crates, and send it to the United States, where it would be installed atop the pedestal on Bedloe’s Island, but the pedestal wasn’t even close to being finished.

So Bartholdi left the statue standing in the courtyard.Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, Construction of Statue COMING TO AMERICA By 1871, Bartholdi had most of the details worked out in his mind. The American monument would be a colossal statue of a woman called “Liberty Enlightening the World.” It would be paid for by the French people, and the pedestal that it stood on would be financed and built by the Americans. Did you know? the Statue of Liberty was built to withstand hurricane-force winds with copper skin less than two pennies thick? And that’s not all you may not know about this American icon. It is alledged that Miss Liberty of Statue-of-Liberty fame wasn’t always imagined as the scowling, linebacker-throated Midwestern matron of steely spiky Germanic stock that she is today. She was supposed to look like an Arab peasant, robed in the folds of Muslim precepts. She wasn’t even supposed to be eternally standing at the entrance of New York Harbor, welcoming new arrivals to the New World.

She was supposed to be the welcome ma’am at the entrance of the Suez Canal in Egypt, that her name was supposed to be either Egypt or Progress, and that the flame she was brandishing was to symbolize the light she was bringing to Asia, which had claims to newness all its own. Illustration from U.S. Patent D11023, Filed Jan 2, 1870 by Bartholdi Lighting the Way to Asia All this from the imaginative scruffles of Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi , the Alsatian-French sculptor who’d fallen in love with his own Orientalist fantasies about the Middle East after a trip to Egypt’s Luxor spreads in 1855. He liked Egypt’s colossal sculptures, those “granite beings of imperturpable majesty” with their eyes seemingly “fixed on the limitless future.” He liked just as much the then-fashionable notions of Europeans thinking themselves the “Orient”‘s best thing since unsliced baklava.

Bartholdi returned to Egypt in 1869 with the blueprints for a toga-draped giant of a woman who’d double-up as a lighthouse at the entrance of the Suez Canal , which opened that year to fanfare and (British and French) stockholders’ delight. The Suez Canal may have been in Egypt. But Egypt wasn’t reaping its monetary benefits. The American Civil War had done wonders for Egyptian wealth thanks to the blockade of Southern cotton, which turned Egyptian cotton into gold. But the price of cotton crashed after the Civil War and so did Egypt’s economy. Suez revenue could have picked up the slack. Instead, it went into the pockets of European investors (until Egypt’s Gama Abdel Nasser nationalized the waterway in 1956, to the disingenuous fury of France and Britain). From Lady Egypt to Lady Liberty As Bartholdi was sketching one likeness of his great statue after another, it became apparent that his plan would never get Egypt’s financing. Bartholdi was crushed. He sailed to New York. And there, as his ship was entering New York Harbor, he saw Bedloe’s Island, deserted, oval-shaped, perfectly positioned to bear his creation.

She wouldn’t be Egypt. But she’d still be Barthold’s. He worked out an arrangement with Gustav Eiffel to build the statue in 350 pieces in Paris, for the French government to pay for the statue (that was back when French and Americans had more respect than reproach for each other), and with American donors to pay for the 89-foot pedestal. Bartholdi’s goal was to have the dedication coincide with the centennial of the American Revolution, somewhere around July 4, 1876. It happened a bit later, on Oct. 28, 1886, with a military, naval and civic parade in Manhattan, ending at the Battery at the tip of the island, with Gen. Charles P. Stone, who as the statue’s American engineer, was essentially its midwife, was the parade’s grand marshal. She was no longer an Egyptian woman. She was “Liberty Enlightening the World.” New York Inaugurates Liberty The weather did not cooperate. The rain was so bad that a New York Times editorioal called it “almost a national misfortune” that “robbed the pageant of much of its effect.” Not that U.S.

President Grover Cleveland was going to miss a chance to make himself slightly immortal by association with Lady Liberty as he accepted “this grand and imposing work of art,” though in words of granite neither grand nor imposing: “This token of the affection and consideration of the people of France assures us that in our efforts to commend to mankind a government resting upon popular will, we still have beyond the American continent a steadfast ally, while it also demonstrates the kinship of the republic.” At that point the historical record notes that there were loud cheers, not least those wondering who wrote that stuff. But Cleveland got a bit more colorful in his next salvo: “We are not here today to bow before the representative of a fierce and warlike god, filled with wrath and vengeance, but instead, we contemplate our own peaceful deity keeping watch before the open gates of America.” Well, the battleship Tennessee’s warlike batteries, which had just boomed, notwithstanding.

“Instead of grasping in her hands the thunderbolts of terror and of death, she holds aloft the light that illumines the way to man’s enfranchisement.” Liberty’s light, he concluded, “shall pierce the darkness of ignorance and men’s oppression until liberty shall enlighten the world.” One last irony: Bedloe’s Island was not officially renamed until many years later, when it became Liberty Island. The year? 1956. The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island can be seen from the Lower Manhattan Tour given by FREE TOURS BY FOOT ! Read More on the Suez Canal, Where Lady liberty Was Originally to Stand lost three centuries earlier! Click here for a detailed account of the Tijger from naturalhistorymag.com. The area where the World Trade Center was eventually built (around Cortlandt street and the Hudson Terminal was also once known as “ Radio Row ”. Radio Row was a warehouse district that began in 1921 when Harry Schneck opened “City Radio” on Cortland Street and the district eventually grew to extend to several blocks from Cortlandt Street.

By 1930, Radio Row consisted of some 40-50 stores mostly concentrated between Dey Street on the North and Cortlandt on the south. Hudson Terminal was constructed by the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad at the turn of the twentieth century and was located between Greenwich, Cortlandt, Church, and Fulton Streets. The terminal opened in 1900 and was was noted for both its architecture and engineering, said to be a marvel of its time. By 1914, passenger volume at the Hudson Terminal exceeded 30,000 annually and by 1922 was approaching 60,000. Ridership on the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad peaked in 1927 then declined steadily as automobile tunnels and bridges started to span the Hudson River. Hudson Terminal (right) In 1946, the New York State Legislature authorized the development of a “world trade mart” in downtown Manhattan, however, it wasn’t until 1958 that Chase Manhattan Bank vice chair David Rockefeller announced plans to build a multi-million-square-foot complex on Lower Manhattan’s east side, later changed to the the west side in the area of the old Hudson Terminal and Radio Row.

Both Radio Row and the Hudson Terminal were demolished to make way for the World Trade Center. The World Trade Center PATH station replaced the Hudson Terminal and opened in 1971. The relationship of the two terminals can be seen in this aerial view of the World Trade Center property under construction. Take FREE Lower Manhattan Tour with NYC By Foot and visit Ground Zero as part of the tour. References:

Question: On Oct 28, 1886, the rotund one himself, Grover Cleveland, officially dedicated what US Landmark?
Answer: The Statue of Liberty