LIBERTY

On this date in 1885, the Statue of Liberty arrived in New York Harbor. Well, most of it did. The right arm and torch were completed earlier and had been put on display in Madison Square Gardens.

The statue arrived in some 350 individual pieces but there was no place to put it. The pedestal on which it stands was not completed until April, 1886. The statue was then assembled on and as part of the pedestal and was unveiled by President Grover Cleveland in October, 1886.

Their is a sonnet by Emma Lazarus inscribed on the inside of the pedestal.

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

The reference at the beginning of the poem is to the Colossus of Rhodes. Before it was destroyed by earthquake, it was considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Mother of Exiles never caught on. She is generally known as Lady Liberty.

Liberty caught on for a while but is in jeopardy today!.
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