France gave the United States the Statue of Liberty.
The statue was presented as a gift from the people of France and dedicated in New York Harbor on October 28, 1886. French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi designed the monument, while Gustave Eiffel helped create its internal iron framework.
The idea developed in the 1860s through Édouard de Laboulaye, a French political thinker and abolitionist who admired the American republic. The project was intended to celebrate liberty, democracy, and the historical relationship between France and the United States. French fundraising paid for the statue, while American fundraising supported its pedestal.
The monument was assembled on what was then Bedloe’s Island, now called Liberty Island. Its tablet is inscribed “JULY IV MDCCLXXVI,” referring to the date associated with the Declaration of Independence. The broken chain beneath the figure’s foot symbolizes liberation.
The Statue of Liberty is often associated with immigration because of its location near major arrival routes. The famous poem “The New Colossus,” however, was added to the pedestal in 1903, seventeen years after the dedication.