The idea was born in France in 1865, among opponents of an emperor who dreamed of a republic. The French paid for the statue, the Americans were to pay for the pedestal, and for years hardly anyone in the United States wanted to put up the money. Twelve stops between the park where New York pulled down its king, the shore where Bartholdi chose the island, the fort that recalls the arm shown off to raise funds, the pier of old Bedloe's Island, the original torch, the copper skin as thin as two coins, the star-shaped fort, Pulitzer's fundraising drive, Eiffel's skeleton, the crown, the broken chains at her feet and the rainy day of the unveiling. Approximate audio duration: 23 minutes.
▸ Ver en español
La Estatua de la Libertad: el regalo de Francia que tardó veintiún años en llegar
La idea nació en Francia en 1865, entre opositores a un emperador que soñaban con una república. Los franceses pagaron la estatua, los estadounidenses debían pagar el pedestal, y durante años casi nadie en Estados Unidos quiso poner el dinero. Doce paradas entre el parque donde Nueva York derribó a su rey, la orilla donde Bartholdi eligió la isla, el fuerte desde donde se exhibió el brazo para juntar fondos, el muelle de la vieja isla de Bedloe, la antorcha original, la piel de cobre fina como dos monedas, el fuerte con forma de estrella, la colecta de Pulitzer, el esqueleto de Eiffel, la corona, las cadenas rotas a sus pies y el día lluvioso de la inauguración. Duración aproximada de audio: 23 minutos.
Tour stops
12 stops · ~23 min of audio · 4.88 km on foot (~1 h 15 min walking) · about 1 h 45 min in total
You are standing at Bowling Green, the small green oval where Broadway ends. Look at the black iron fence around it. It went up in 1771, and back then it was not protecting a garden. It was protecting a king.
In the middle of the oval stood an equestrian statue of George III, King of Great Britain, made of gilded lead. It had been unveiled in 1770, when New Yorkers were still grateful to him for repealing a hated tax.
Six years later everything had changed. On 9 July 1776 the Declaration of Independence was read in New York to George Washington's troops. That same evening a crowd came here, …
2
A Professor, a Sculptor and an Awkward Emperor
You are at the railing of Battery Park, looking out over the bay. Over there, about three kilometres to the southwest, the green statue stands out against the water. From here she looks small. She is not.
The story begins in France in 1865. According to what the sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi told years later, at a dinner in the home of Édouard de Laboulaye, near Versailles, the idea arose of a monument shared by the two countries.
Laboulaye was a jurist and a great admirer of the United States Constitution. He also chaired the French anti-slavery society, and that year the American Civ…
3
An Arm and a Head on Tour
You are standing before the round walls of Castle Clinton, where tickets for the ferry are sold. Before boarding, think about Bartholdi's problem: an enormous idea and nobody to pay for it.
In 1875 the Franco-American Union was founded in France to raise money for the statue. There were banquets, a lottery and contributions from thousands of individuals and towns. The French paid for the statue.
The deal was clear: France would provide the figure, and the United States the pedestal and the site. What nobody foresaw was how little the Americans would care.
To stir up interest, Bartholdi fini…
4
Bedloe's Island
You have stepped off the ferry onto Liberty Island. You are on the pier, and the statue rises on the far side of the lawn with her back to you. That is no mistake: she faces southeast, towards the harbour entrance where ships came in from the ocean.
For almost three centuries this island had another name. In the seventeenth century it passed to a merchant, Isaac Bedloe, and it remained Bedloe's Island until 1956, when Congress renamed it.
Before the statue it served less glorious purposes. It was used as a quarantine station for the sick, and between 1808 and 1811 the army built a fort here …
5
The Torch That Is No Longer in Her Hand
You are in the Statue of Liberty Museum, opened in 2019. Look for its centrepiece: an enormous copper torch, its flame full of small glass windows. This is the statue's original torch, the one she held aloft for a hundred years.
At first the statue was also meant to work as a lighthouse. From 1886 to 1902 it was run by the United States Lighthouse Board. But its light was so weak that it was of almost no use to ships.
In 1916 the sculptor Gutzon Borglum, the man who later carved Mount Rushmore, cut openings into the copper flame and fitted hundreds of panes of glass so it would glow from wit…
6
A Copper Skin as Thick as Two Coins
You are behind the statue, on the lawn. From here the robe is easy to see: huge folds falling to her feet. It looks like heavy stone. It is a sheet of copper about two and a half millimetres thick, the thickness of two stacked coins.
The technique is called repoussé. In the Paris workshop of Gaget, Gauthier and Company, workers hammered some three hundred copper sheets from the back, over hand-carved wooden moulds. In all, around thirty-one tonnes of copper.
Before reaching this size there was a series of plaster models, each bigger than the last. The final one was made in sections, because …
7
A Star-Shaped Fort for a Base
You are beside the grey granite walls that surround the pedestal. If you could see them from the air, you would notice they form an eleven-pointed star. They are what remains of Fort Wood, the fort of 1811.
Bartholdi chose the island partly because of this fort. The walls were already there, and the statue could rise from their centre, as if the old bastion were a stone crown at her feet.
The pedestal was designed by Richard Morris Hunt, one of the most prestigious architects in the country. His first design was much taller. For lack of money, he had to scale it down.
The engineering was le…
8
The Pedestal Nobody Wanted to Pay For
You are inside the pedestal, surrounded by granite. Every one of these blocks was a battle. Because the French side was paid for, but the American side very nearly never was.
The American committee raised money very slowly. Many saw the project as a New York whim, and across the country people asked why they should pay for a gift that would stand in another city.
In 1884 the governor of New York State, Grover Cleveland, vetoed a bill granting fifty thousand dollars to the work. In Congress, a hundred-thousand-dollar appropriation also failed. By early 1885 construction had stalled for lack o…
9
Eiffel's Skeleton
You are at the top of the pedestal. Look up through the glass ceiling and you will see inside the statue: a tower of iron girders and, around it, a web of bars holding up the copper skin.
The project's first engineer was Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, the famous restorer of cathedrals. He planned to fill the lower part of the statue with compartments of sand to give it weight. He died in 1879 before solving the problem.
His replacement was Gustave Eiffel, ten years before his tower in Paris. His idea was revolutionary: a central iron pylon, like a spine, and a secondary framework linking it to the s…
10
The Crown and the Face
If you climbed, you are inside the crown, after a hundred and sixty-two spiral steps up from the pedestal. Look through the twenty-five small windows: the whole bay lies at your feet. If you stayed below, find the crown with your eyes.
Notice the seven rays rising from it. The most common reading is that they stand for the seven seas and the seven continents: a liberty that lights up the whole world, as the work's official name says.
Because the statue is not called the Statue of Liberty. Its name is Liberty Enlightening the World. Bartholdi drew on the figure of Libertas, the Roman goddess …
11
The Broken Chains Almost No One Sees
You are on the promenade on the south side, facing the statue. Now she does look your way, or rather, over your head, towards the open sea. This is the view that ships had as they entered the bay.
Look at the tablet in her left arm. It is engraved with a date in Roman numerals: JULY IV MDCCLXXVI. That is 4 July 1776, the day of the Declaration of Independence. The same declaration that, five days later, led New Yorkers to pull down the lead king at Bowling Green.
Now lower your eyes to her feet, though from here it is hard to see. Among the folds of the robe lie a broken shackle and links of…
12
The Day the Veil Fell
You are on the north side of the island. Across the water are the towers of Lower Manhattan, where you started. To the left, closer, is the brick building of Ellis Island.
On 28 October 1886 the statue was finally unveiled. It was raining and foggy. That morning a parade went through Manhattan, and from the offices of Wall Street people threw out strips of paper from the stock tickers. It was the city's first ticker-tape parade.
On the island, the main speech was given by the President of the United States. He was Grover Cleveland, the same man who two years earlier, as governor, had refused…
How long does the "The Statue of Liberty: France's Gift That Took Twenty-One Years to Arrive" audio tour take?
It has about 23 minutes of audio across 12 stops and a 4.88 km walking route (~1 h 15 min on foot). Plan roughly 1 h 45 min in total, or split it up: you can pause and resume anytime.
Where does the tour start?
At stop 1, "The Park Where New York Pulled Down Its King" (coordinates 40.7049, -74.0138). The app guides you from stop to stop with a map.
Is it free?
Trevurs is a free app for iOS and Android. There is also an optional Premium version, from USD 1.99, with unlimited offline downloads, access to every tour and no ads. It also helps keep an independent app alive.
Why use an audio tour instead of a guided group tour?
No group to keep up with and no guide to wait for. Start at any time of day, on your own schedule. Go at your own pace: pause, rewind or skip any stop. No need to commit 2 or 3 hours to a single tour: do one stop or the whole route. Works offline once downloaded.
What languages is this audio guide available in?
This tour is available in Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, Italian. Switch languages anytime from inside the app.
Do I need wifi to listen to this tour?
No. Download the tour over wifi before you go, then listen without any data connection.
How do I access this tour?
Download Trevurs on iPhone (App Store) or Android (Google Play), then open New York and pick "The Statue of Liberty: France's Gift That Took Twenty-One Years to Arrive". No account required to start.
