What is the name of the French gift that became New York Harbor’s famous landmark in 1886?

The Statue of Liberty was the French gift that became New York Harbor’s famous landmark in 1886.

France presented the statue to the United States to commemorate the centennial of American independence and the countries’ alliance during the American Revolution. Sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi designed the colossal figure, while engineer Gustave Eiffel helped design its internal supporting framework.

The statue was assembled on Bedloe’s Island, now called Liberty Island. It was dedicated on October 28, 1886, in a ceremony attended by President Grover Cleveland. The copper statue depicts Libertas, the Roman goddess of freedom, holding a torch in her raised right hand and a tablet in her left.

The tablet bears the date July 4, 1776, written in Roman numerals. Emma Lazarus’s sonnet “The New Colossus” was placed on a plaque inside the pedestal in 1903, decades after the dedication. The poem helped shape the statue’s later association with immigration and arrival in America.