Unknown things about the Goddess of Freedom

On October 28, the Americans solemnly celebrated the 125th anniversary of the inauguration of the Statue of Liberty in New York, symbolizing the United States and organizing the citizenship ceremony for 125 people from 46 countries. world. The praised multiraciality has made this nation's power.

It is said that it is not to New York to visit New York without visiting the Liberty Goddess. Some people even say so much that they have not come to the United States to come to America but have not seen it before. That pride of the Americans is not unreasonable, because, many beautiful, majestic and meaningful statues are found in many parts of the world, but it seems that no monument has a lot of meaning. associated with many stories and recorded many records such as the Statue of Liberty.

The background of the Statue of Liberty

The Statue of Liberty is considered a symbol of New York.

Double history line

Hundreds of millions of people came to visit and admire the Liberty Goddess.Many celebrities recorded the confession in the yellow book of the Souvenir House.They looked up at the star wings on the laurel wreath, the flare of the torch glowed, with a very symbolic meaning and full of praise.

A recent US researcher has discovered a historical detail.Nearly a century ago, in 1912, there was only one person after admiring and looking high, touched by noble ideals 'Freedom - Equality - Uncle Ai', he also looked down at the base of the statue but deep. private.He entered the memorial house to write the words of the great idea: The statue held a high torch of Freedom, Equality and Charity, but right under the statue, on this very land, colored people, women, people White workers are still oppressed, exploiting badly .

The young man was named Van Ba, a name of our beloved Uncle Ho.He used to work in New York, lived in the poor Harlem neighborhood.

In the summer of 1865, at a party in Paris, a French intellectual group celebrated the future of the United States. They operate in the Republic Restoration Movement in France. The victory of democracy in America gave them a promising street torch. Edouard René Lefèbre de Laboulaye, the owner of the party, a famous intellectual, offered to present a majestic monument to American Independence. That idea took over the mind of the young sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi that day.

Bartholdi was previously tasked with making a monument in the Suez Canal (Egypt). He outlined some models, an Egyptian female statue with high torches. This plan was not accepted but suggested to him about Laboulaye's proposal.

In 1871, he embarked on a ship to the United States, surveyed many places and finally decided to choose the small island of Bedloe in the New York estuary as a place for statues. The island is located in a beautiful location, facing the two most populous areas of New York, Brooklyn and Manhattan. Every ship entering the city must pass in front of it.

Back in America, Bartholdi rushed to compose. Experience from previous sketches and the picture of 'The People-led Freedom God' of painter Eugène Delacroix helped him build a 'life- giving ' statue for the American people.

The statue is a woman wearing ancient Greek or Roman clothes, the right hand holding the torch, the symbol of the fire of Prussian to humanity, symbolizing Freedom, a left hand holding a The board shows the Roman numeral 4/7/1776 as the day of American independence. On the forehead of the goddess is a laurel wreath with 7 rays of light symbolizing 7 continents: Europe, Asia, Australia, America, Africa, Arctic and Antarctica. Under the statue, there is a broken chain, symbolizing the elimination of slavery and dictatorship in the world.

It is said that the delicate and firm face of the Liberty Goddess is based on the portrait of Bartholdi's own mother, who encouraged the sculptor to enter the art. As for the posture and arm that held the torch high, the beautiful young lady Jeanne de Pusieux stood patiently as a model for him to compose. Love arises, she became his wife.

In 1875, in France, the French-American Association was established to raise money to build a statue. This is not easy to do because France was immersed in the harsh feudal regime of Napoleon III. But in the end, after 19 years of hard work, overcoming all shortages of capital, materials, labor . the statue was finished casting in Paris in 1884.

A summary of the casting process and statues

After the model was approved, Bartholdi commanded the casting of statues at the Gaget, Gauthier & Company workshops. He applied the technique of embossing copper sheets of 2.5 to 3mm thick instead of conventional copper casting techniques. The structure was given to engineer Gustave Eiffel (at this time, not yet made the Eiffel Tower but he was famous for the large steel bridges). The statue is 45.30m high, at that time it was a terrible height. Bearing structure is a central pillar consisting of 4 columns of iron bracing tightly together. This pole is 29m high, anchored to the pedestal. On the top there is a 12.2m high pillar to hold the torch arm. A further framework separated from the central pillar to mount the loose castings of the statue, with high flexibility, allowing the copper plates to contract with temperature and make the statue move with the wind. The whole statue can swing 10cm, the torch can fluctuate 13cm.

The statue is cast in France, and the pedestal in the United States has been designed by American architect Richard Morris Hunt since 1881. But the Americans do not believe in the success of this bold project, arguing that it is just a project. The aim of 'a dreamy French guy' should be neglected three years after the new design has been approved and therefore the construction is slower than the French side. The 26.7cm tall, shiny gold statue sits in the middle of Fort Wood Fortress on Bedloe Island.

The statue was finished, after a period of exhibition in his hometown, on June 19, 1885, the French Isere ship carried a disassembled statue, contained in 214 wooden barrels to Bedloe Island. In May 1886, the statue was erected. Workers used 300,000 studs to pair 80,640 copper plates without using scaffolds, they often work by hanging in the air with ropes.

On October 23, 1886, the last frozen sheet was finished. The Goddess of Freedom faces the immense sea in the sky.

On October 28, 1886, officially handed over the statue of the French people to the American people in a very solemn ceremony in the joys and pride of the two peoples. The whole city came to the street and pulled to the port to witness the inauguration. A large fleet, bearing the colors of the march on the sea. The current US president Grover cut the opening tape.

Since that day, the United States has a 'national treasure' that has historical significance. At that time, rich and untouched America was receiving an immigration from all over the world. The Goddess symbolizes this young country, stands in the doorway, holds up the torch to illuminate the entrance to the free land, with a generous heart, ready to welcome miserable people and minds The soul is tired of a certain wound, those who lead together to abandon their homeland to find new life.

The torch of the bright goddess equals 2,500 times the full moon. No statue in the world is bigger than the Statue of Liberty. No place on Earth to receive people from all over the country like New York, just like the poetry of poet Emma Lazurus carved under the statue 'Come here, those tired, poor .'.

Some data

The Statue of Liberty is officially called 'Freedom to light the world' (Liberty enlighten the world).

The original model was 1.2m high, then the samples kept increasing in size until they were large-scale, corresponding to the spacious look on Redloe Island (later renamed Freedom Island).In fact, the statue weighs 225 tons, excluding the pedestal and pillars, the reinforced scaffolding inside.46m high statue, 47m pedestal, total 93m.Corresponding to that height, the statue's back is 10.6m wide, 91cm wide mouth, middle finger of the 2.4m long Goddess, 33cm nail, fire on the torch 12.8m long.

The poem conjures up images of people who flock to the area in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, turning New York into the world's largest city of hundreds of ethnic groups.

The Statue of Liberty becomes a world-leading sightseeing destination, attracting 2 million visitors every year.

The foot of the monument formerly a fortress of the coast is now a historical museum of the birth of the monument. Elevator system and a few hundred steps lead visitors to the top of the statue. Only the inner space of the statue head can contain 400 people at the same time. From here, looking out of sight, you can see the immense sea, ships and boats as well as New York City with majestic skyscrapers. Only regret is that there is no towering tower in the tower, the terrorists have collapsed 10 years ago.

In addition to attracting millions of immigrants to nearby Ellis Island, the statue has a more practical function than making a lighthouse, guiding the ships into the bay. So at first the statue was placed under the administration of the US Lighthouse Committee, then, under the management of the National Park.

In Vietnam, there was a Statue of Liberty

Other sculptor Bartholdi made a bronze statue about 3 meters high for the exhibition and this statue was brought to Vietnam to display in a fair, held at Trang Thi street, now the National Library. After the fair, the statue at that time called the Lady of the Dress was placed in a beautiful place of the central flower garden on a rather high stone pedestal in Bo Ho (now belongs to the Hanoi People's Committee Area, right at door 12 Le Lai straightened out). On 17/1890, France transferred the Goddess statue to Neyret flower garden (now Cua Nam flower garden) and replaced the statue of the French governor Paul Bert.

In 1945, the Japanese coup d'etat of France, the mayor of Hanoi at that time, Dr. Tran Van Lai, had to suppress the statue of the "bastard dress" because it was a mark of France, stored in a warehouse. Later when Ngu Xa village cast the statue of Amitabha reclaimed the statue of the goddess, took bronze to cast the Buddha statue. Thus, the goddess was in the 16-ton Buddha statue currently located in Ngu Xa temple, Hanoi.