Statue of Liberty

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) March 1, 2006 --

The Statue of Liberty, the most enduring symbol of New York City - and indeed, the USA - can trace its unlikely origins to a pair of Parisian Republicans. In 1865, political activist Edouard Ren� Lefebvre de Laboulaye and sculptor Fr�d�ric-Auguste Bartholdi went to a dinner party and came away with the notion of building a monument honoring the American conception of political freedom, which they would then donate to the Land of Opportunity. Twenty-one years later, on 28 October 1886, the 151ft (45m) Liberty Enlightening the World, modeled on the Colossus of Rhodes, was finally unveiled in New York Harbor before President Grover Cleveland and a harbor full of tooting ships. It's a 354-step climb to the statue's crown, the equivalent of climbing a 22-story building, and if you want to tackle it, start early to avoid the crowds - it's hard to contemplate the American dream with your nose to the tail of the person in front.

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