The
Statue of Liberty (
Liberty Enlightening the World; French:
La Liberté éclairant le monde) is a colossal
neoclassical sculpture on
Liberty Island in
New York Harbor in
New York City, in the
United States. The copper statue, a gift from the people of France to the people of the United States, was designed by French sculptor
Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and built by
Gustave Eiffel. The statue was dedicated on October 28, 1886.
The Statue of Liberty is a figure of a robed woman representing
Libertas, a Roman
liberty goddess. She holds a torch above her head with her right hand, and in her left hand carries a
tabula ansata inscribed in
Roman numerals with "JULY IV MDCCLXXVI" (July 4, 1776), the date of the
U.S. Declaration of Independence. A broken chain lies at her feet as she walks forward. The statue became an icon of freedom and of the United States, and was a welcoming sight to
immigrants arriving from abroad. [Source: Wikipedia]