Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island in New York Harbour,New York City,USA Reached New York From France on June 17, 1885 131 Years Ago

On June 17, 1885, the French steamer Isère, laden with the Statue of Liberty, reached the New York port safely. New Yorkers displayed their new-found enthusiasm for the statue, as the French vessel arrived with the crates holding the disassembled statue on board.

Two hundred thousand people lined the docks and hundreds of boats put to sea to welcome the Isère

The Statue of Liberty,the copper statue, designed by Frederic Auguste Bartholdi , a French sculptor

The statue was a gift to the United States from the people of France

The statue is of a robed female figure representing Libertas,the Roman Goddess, who bears a torch and a tabula ansata  (a tablet evoking the law) upon which is inscribed the date of the American Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776. A broken chain lies at her feet.

The statue is an icon of freedom and of the United States, and was a welcoming sight to immigrants arriving from abroad