Next to the flag, it's America's most famous symbol for freedom - an icon for the immigrant, Liberty Enlightening the World as it is officially titled is familiarly the Statue of Liberty.

Standing 151 feet above New York Harbor since 1886, the ferry brings you to her feet on Liberty Island. If you want to climb the 354 step narrow winding staircase inside the Statue, get there early, long lines can mean a 3-hour ascent.

Design
The statue was designed by a young French sculptor, Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, who was striving to build a statue like the great Colossus that once stood at the Greek island Rhodes. The statue's face was modeled after his mother's and the story goes that the body was modeled after a prostitute. The crown of Lady Liberty, as the statue is often affectionately called, has seven spikes, symbolizing the Seven Seas across which liberty should be spread. In her left hand she holds a tablet with the Declaration of Independence and in her right hand a torch, symbolizing Enlightenment.

Construction
The statue's steel framework was made by French engineer Gustave Eiffel, better known as the man behind the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Thanks to an ingenious construction consisting of copper plates attached to the metal framework, the statue is flexible enough to withstand heavy storms. Large iron bars attach the framework to a central pylon. The Statue of Liberty was constructed in Paris, France. It took nine years before it was completed in 1884 after which it was sent to the USA in 214 crates. Even before the arrival of the statue, Bartholdi himself had traveled to the Unites States to discuss the location of the statue with president Ulysses S. Grant. Eventually it was decided tot erect the statue at a small island in the harbor of New York City. Today the island is known as Liberty Island.