By: Barnali Bose, Editor-ICN
NEW YORK: Liberty, one of the keywords in the Indian constitution was incorporated into it from the French Constitution.And what better way could there be to get a feel of it but at the Liberty State Park, the Ellis Island and the Liberty island located between New York City and Hudson County,New Jersey ?
A visit to Lady Liberty,the Silent Sentinel
As the Statue cruise gradually sailed away from the Ellis island, scenes of the immigration that has so well been depicted on the walls of the Ellis Island continued to flash before my eyes.
We were now drifting towards the neighbouring island. Lady Liberty beckoned me to join her as she held high the torch dispelling the darkness of slavery and bondage. The first thought that engulfed my mind was that she was a mute expression of woman power.
Lady Liberty’s immigration to America :
To go back in time, in the summer of 1884, the dismantled Statue of Liberty,a gift of friendship from France to the people of America, arrived in New York Harbour across the Atlantic Ocean in 350 individual pieces packed in more than 200 cases. The gift was meant to commemorate the American Revolution and further strengthen amicable ties between the U.S. and France.
Although initially scheduled to be completed by 1876, the 100th anniversary of America’s Declaration of Independence, raising of funds took more time than initially anticipated. The expenditure the French incurred on the statue was an estimated $250,000 (more than $5.5 million in today’s money).
The copper and iron statue was reassembled and dedicated the following year in a ceremony presided over by U.S. President Grover Cleveland. It came to be revered worldwide as an enduring symbol of freedom and democracy.
It was French sculptor Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi who is said to have modelled it after his own mother. Engineer Gustave Eiffel, who later added the iconic tower in Paris to his credit, assisted in giving shape to his design.
The Sentinel keeping vigil for centuries over the Land of the immigrants:
Standing more than 305 feet tall, the statue, given the caption,“Liberty Enlightening the World” by Bartholdi, towered over all other structures in New York City at the time.
The statue, though originally copper-colored, underwent a gradual transformation. The process called patination has accorded it, its current greenish-blue hue.
In 1892, Ellis Island located near Bedloe’s Island (which in 1956 was renamed Liberty Island), opened as America’s chief immigration station. For the next 62 years Lady Liberty, as the statue is nicknamed, kept silent vigil over more than 12 million immigrants who sailed into New York Harbour.
In 1903, a plaque inscribed with a sonnet titled “The New Colossus” by American poet Emma Lazarus, written 20 years earlier for a pedestal fundraiser, was placed on an interior wall of the pedestal.
Lazarus’ now-famous words, which include “Give me your tired, your poor/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” reiterated America’s potrayal of itself as a land of opportunity for immigrants.
President Calvin Coolidge gave it the status of a national monument in 1924. It then underwent a multi-million-dollar restoration, which included a new torch and gold leaf-covered flame. It was rededicated by President Ronald Reagan on July 4, 1986, in a grand celebration.
The terrorist devastation of the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in 2001 prompted the authorities to bar access to the statue for obvious reasons.Its base, pedestal and observation deck were re-opened in 2004, while its crown re-opened to the public on July 4, 2009.
The torch, however has remained closed to visitors since 1916, after an incident called the Black Tom explosions in which munitions-laden barges and railroad cars on the Jersey City, New Jersey state waterfront were blown up by German agents.
Bidding adieu to Lady Liberty
At 5 p.m, as the Statue cruise drifted away from the island and the colossal Lady gradually shrank in view, in my mind her image magnified multiple times.
Back at the harbour,I paused for a moment to look back at the two islands located in close proximity with each other.
President Cleveland said, “We will not forget that Liberty has here made her home; nor shall her chosen altar be neglected.”
Significance of Lady Liberty
The Statue of Liberty is one of America’s most famous landmarks. It became a Unesco Heritage site in 1984 as a technological marvel and embodiment of freedom.
Over the years, Lady Liberty, the silent sentinel and witness to remarkable political upheavals,featured on celluloid, shared on digital platforms and in social media, has never failed to attract tourists from all over the globe.
