Which engineer built the Statue of Liberty's metal framework?

Gustave Eiffel built the Statue of Liberty’s metal framework.

Eiffel became involved after architect and engineer Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, who had worked on the early internal design, died in 1879. Bartholdi then engaged Eiffel, who proposed replacing the planned masonry support with a tall iron truss structure.

The resulting framework supported the thin copper skin while allowing the statue to flex slightly in New York Harbor’s winds. Eiffel also accounted for thermal expansion: copper and iron respond differently to temperature changes, so a completely rigid connection could have placed damaging stress on the exterior.

Maurice Koechlin was Eiffel’s structural engineer and contributed to the technical work, while Joachim Goschen Giæver later handled detailed computations, drawings, and construction oversight. Those contributions explain why the project involved several important engineers, but Eiffel is the standard answer because his firm designed and built the celebrated internal framework.