Which monument, dedicated in New York Harbor in 1886, was a gift from France to the United States?

The Statue of Liberty, dedicated in New York Harbor in 1886, was a gift from France to the United States.

Its formal name is Liberty Enlightening the World. France gave the statue to commemorate the centennial of the American Declaration of Independence and the friendship between the two countries. Sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi designed the figure, while Gustave Eiffel’s company engineered its iron framework.

The statue was dedicated on October 28, 1886, on what was then called Bedloe’s Island. It portrays Libertas, the Roman goddess of liberty, holding a torch and a tablet inscribed with July 4, 1776, in Roman numerals.

The monument is often confused with the Statue of Liberty National Monument’s nearby immigration history. The statue itself welcomed many immigrants symbolically, but immigrants were processed at Ellis Island, which opened in 1892. The Statue of Liberty became a national monument in 1924 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984.