Wednesday, Jun. 16, 2010
Statue of Liberty; New York City
Lady Liberty was a gift from France, intended to commemorate the American Centennial in 1876. But the statue wasn't completed in France until July 1884, where it was disassembled into 350 pieces and packed into 214 crates for the journey across the Atlantic Ocean. When it finally arrived in New York in July 1885, the statue sat in storage for 11 months due to a pedestal that had not yet been completed. After four months of reassembly, President Grover Cleveland finally unveiled the statue in front of thousands of spectators on October 28, 1886. She has been welcoming the huddled masses ever since.