20 Statue of Liberty Facts!
1. The statue’s full name is Liberty Enlightening the World.
2.The head of the statue was displayed at the World's Fair in Paris in 1878. 3. The robed female figure represents Libertas, the Roman goddess of freedom. 4.Lady Liberty wears a size 879 shoe. 5.She has a 35-foot waistline 6. Visitors have to climb 354 stairs to reach the statue’s crown. 7.There are 25 windows in the crown. 8. The seven spikes on the crown represent the seven oceans and the seven continents of the world, indicating the universal concept of liberty. 9.the statue's face was said to be modeled on the sculptor's mother, Charlotte. 10.The statue’s most famous cinematic appearance was in the 1968 film “Planet of the Apes” where it is seen half buried in sand.It is also destroyed in the films "Independence Day" and "The Day After Tomorrow". 11.Two people have committed suicide by jumping off the statue, one in 1929 and the other in 1932, while many others have jumped and survived. 12.Lady Liberty is thought to have been hit by around 600 bolts of lightning every year since she was built. A photographer captured this for the first time in 2010. 13.There are various replicas of the statue, including a smaller version in Paris, and one on the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada. 14. The statue functioned as a lighthouse for 16 years (1886-1902), lighting a distance of up to 24 miles away. 15. Miss America, the comic book character, was granted her powers by the statue. 16.After the terrorist attacks of September 11, the statue was closed for security reasons, with the pedestal reopening in 2004, and the statue in 2009, but only a limited number of visitors are able to go up to the crown. 17.The statue was again closed in 2012 due to the effects of Hurricane Sandy, with the island off limits to the public. The statue reopened to visitors on Independence Day, July 4, 2013. 18.The statue sustained minor damage in 1916 when German saboteurs set off an explosion during World War One. The torch-bearing arm suffered the most damage, with repair works costing $100,000. The stairs in the torch were then closed to the public for safety reasons, and have remained closed ever since. 19.Two images of the statue appear on a $10 bill. 20.The cost of building the statue and pedestal amounted to over $500,000, over $10m in today’s money. (More) |