Statue of Liberty The Statue of Liberty stands in the New York Harbor and has greeted a lot of immigrants into Ellis Island. At the time, Lady Liberty was letting them know that their journey to find democracy, freedom, and a better way of life, was finally over. The Statue of Liberty stands on Ellis Island as a symbol of freedom. Liberty Enlightening the World" (the full name of the statue) was a gift from France to the United States in 1886. It celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, as the tablet in Liberty's left hand indicates with the date "IV July MDCCLXXVI.” It honors the alliance between France and the U.S during the Revolutionary War. In the early twentieth century, …show more content…
It regulated the process of inspection and deportation for overseas immigration. After being tagged with their number from the ship’s official listing, they would walk into the baggage room, where they were encouraged to check their belongings. Then they moved up the steps to the second-floor registry room in the Great Hall, where they were evaluated by medical inspectors looking for contagious diseases and physical disabilities, and by legal inspectors checking that names, birthplaces, ages, and occupations that matched ship registries. Then in 1917, a literacy test for immigrants over fourteen was administered. When France and the U.S agreed to make the statue, they agreed France would make the statue and America would make the pedestal. Richard Morris Hunt designed the base of the Statue of Liberty. He originally wanted to make the base 114 feet tall but that ended up being to expensive so, he finally settled for 87 feet instead. Even so, the pedestal cost $270,000 back in the 1880s. If it were built today, it would cost more than $6 million. On the big pedestal there is a famous poem by Emma Lazarus, The New Colossus, which says, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-toss to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” Even though this poem was not attached to it until about twenty years after the statue was raised it is very symbolic. When Lady Liberty was originally created, the statue was not green. It was actually the color of copper because that is what it is made of, yet through the years it has rusted into a green color called verdigris. There is no charge to enter the Statue of Liberty, however there is a cost to ride the ferry to the island.