The Statue of Liberty

   The Statue of Liberty is a gift from the people of France to the people of the United States. As it's name says, the colossal sculpture represents the Roman liberty goddess, Libertas.
   The statue holds a torch with her right hand, and in the left hand a tabula, engraved JULY IV MDCCLXXVI (4th of July, 1776), the ratification date of the U.S. Declaration of Independence.
   At the feet of the statue there is a chain, and a broken shackle, symbolizing the abolition of slavery. The Statue soon became an icon of freedom, a symbol of welcome to immigrants arriving by sea, in New York.
   The French politician Edouard Rene de Laboulaye, president of the French Anti-Slavery Society, suggested in 1865 that a monument raised to U.S. Independence will bond the U.S. and French people. Due to the Franco-Prussian War the progress was delayed until 1875, when Laboulaye came with the proposal that the French should finance the statue, and the U.S. provide the site and build the pedestal.
   The U.S. had difficulties with raising the funds, so by 1885 work for the pedestal stopped. Publisher Joseph Pulitzer, of the New York World, started a donations campaign with the promise that all the donors will be mentioned in the newspaper.
   Pulitzer managed to attract 120.000 contributors, most of whom donated less than a dollar, so the construction was complete and the moment was marked by New York's first ticker-tape parade (original confetti).