The Statue of Liberty: Building an Icon

in New York Harbor sends a statue there synonymous with freedom and democracy for the world's most recognizable landmarks and a symbol of hope for millions but to truly appreciate this iconic structure need to understand the financial and technical challenges we faced in becoming reality this is the construction story behind one the greatest engineering achievements of the 19th century [Music] still the tallest statue in the United States more than 130 years after its completion the Statue of Liberty was a record-breaking construction project at the time the giant undertaking held titles such that the tallest science structure ever erected the largest concrete pour ever undertaken and the largest use of copper in a single structure the Statue of Liberty was conceived to celebrate the centenary of American independence by a French intellectual and anti-slavery activist named Edward deliver a he proposed a statue in 1865 to honor both the centenary and the United States friendship with France five years later in 1870 French sculptor Frederic Auguste Batali began designing the statue a robed female figure representing the Roman goddess libertas following a visit to the u.s. orbitally met many prominent Americans including President US CSS grants the project was announced in 1875 the statue has given the name Liberty enlightening the world a title she will keep right up until 1924 when she became a National Monument and was officially renamed the Statue of Liberty while France would finance the statue the Americans will be responsible providing a site and constructing a huge pedestal upon which the statue was stand to finance each elements ambitious fundraising campaigns began on both sides of the Atlantic while overall plans first actually remain to be finalized but Hawley began fabricating the right arm burying the torch to help gain public support for the project the armor shipped to America and displayed at the Centennial International Exhibition of 1876 the first official World's Fair for a fee of 50 Cent's visitors climb a ladder at the balcony for the money raised going directly towards funding the project when the exhibition closed the arm was transported to New York where remained on display in Madison Square Park for six years before being reunited with the rest of the statue in France in a similar vein the head and shoulders were also constructed and became one of the main attractions at the 1878 Paris Universal Expo during construction models of the Statue were put on sale tickets to view the construction workshop will offered and the French government authorized the lottery by the end of 1879 some 250,000 francs had been raised [Music] to make his colossal statue a reality Bartoli sought out the expertise of France's top professionals first he hided mentor Eugene be later Duke the architect responsible for the restoration dr. Dan Paris acting as chief engineer V Lilitu designed a prick here within the statute to which the skin would be anchored these sheets would be shaped using a method called represent the copper is heated and then struck with wooden hammers the copper was hammered to less than a tenth of an inch or two point four millimeters thick creating a statue that's considerably light given its volume when villa Leduc died unexpectedly in 1879 the innovative Gustave Eiffel was hired to replace him while eyeful retained relay leduc copper cladding he abandoned the brick internal peer instead opting to take a more modern approach he designed the central iron pylon standing 92 feet or 28 metres tall backs as the primary support for the structure a forerunner for his famous tower in Paris originally assembled in France the pylon serves of the spine of the statue supporting a secondary skeleton or armature that conforms to the outer contours this armature alone contains over a mile of iron bars each two inches wide the 300 sections of copper sheet weighing a total of 80 tons were attached the armature using 1/2 thousand u-shaped copper saddles as some 300,000 cop rivets eiffels then innovative design makes the statue one of the earliest examples of curtain warner structures the structures exterior is not low bearing and is instead supported by an interior framework with his experience of bridge building and engineering to accommodate wind loads eiffel opted not to create a rigid structure the flexibility of his design allows a statue to withstand the winds across New York Harbor and temperature changes which were for stresses to accumulate in the skin leaving to crack it in the strong wind the statue can move by as much as three inches while the arm can deviate up to five inches combining eiffel and belated Dukes designs the entire statue was manufactured and then assembled in Paris between 1881 and 1884 it was then disassembled packed into torsion 14 crates and shipped to United States aboard the French Navy ship hazir the prefabricated statue was met with great fanfare in New York Harbor on June the 17th 1885 before the pedestal completion on port Ali's trip to New York in 1871 he marked a small island in the harbor as a non ideal location for his statue fortuitously the island home to a disused military base was already owned by the US federal government with a signed resolution from President Grant the item was selected as the site for the Statue it's 11-point star-shaped fort Wood was to become the pedestals base while it may seem hard to believe today securing funding for the project was actually extremely difficult with just one hundred and fifty thousand US dollars raised the project stalled prompting Joseph Pulitzer publisher the New York newspaper of the world to launch a campaign to raise the remaining hundred thousand dollars Pulitzer achieved his target with a staggering 80 percent of the funds we received his sons of less than $1 the neoclassical pedestal standing sub 89 feet or 27 metres tall was an impressive construction undertaking in itself Richard Morris hunt her founder of the American Institute of Architects was chosen to design the structure while general piece dome was appointed engineer in chief Hunt's original concept was seen the pedestal constructed from solid granite but financial concern forced him to revise his plans and instead embark on the largest mass concrete pour undertaken to date the final design called for poured concrete walls up to 20 feet or 6 meters thick face with granite blocks to accommodate the anticipated wind loads for huge reinforcing girders formed into a square who were set as the concrete 29 feet or 9 meters of the pedestal a second square of girders was placed 55 feet or 17 meters higher a few feet from the top of the pedestal with the two sets connected by iron tie beams the statue itself was then anchored to these beams making Liberty and a concrete base one entity when the pedestal was completed in 1886 the statue was rapidly assembled on top of it more than 20 years after his first imagined or to the 28 1886 the copper color statue was finally unveiled it would take a further 30 years to fully oxidized and become the distinctive green color we see today realizing this icon was significant undertaking they engaged leading professionals at the time on both sides of the Atlantic today the Statue of Liberty stands proud at the gateway to America an enduring symbol of freedom and democracy and of what human engineers are truly capable of if you enjoyed this video I would like to get more from the definitive video channel for construction subscribe to the v1m you

Channel: The B1M

Views: 1,566,890

Keywords: BIM, B1M, TheB1M, Construction, The B1M, Architecture, Statue of Liberty, America tallest statue, Building the statue of liberty, New York Architecture, New York, Liberty island, Fort Wood, Lady Liberty, Statue of Liberty history, statue of liberty construction, French statue of liberty, History of the Statue of Liberty, Statue of Liberty secrets, Making the Statue of Liberty, Statue of Liberty facts, construction history

Id: 9QM0tipFQ9c

Length: 9min 10sec (550 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 21 2017