The Statue of Liberty arrived in New York Harbor
On this day · 17 June 1885
France's colossal gift sailed into New York in 1885 as a flat-pack — 350 copper pieces nailed into 214 wooden crates.
On June 17, 1885, the French navy transport Isère sailed into New York Harbor carrying one of the strangest cargoes the city had ever welcomed: the Statue of Liberty, taken apart for shipping.
The colossus had been reduced to roughly 350 individual copper pieces, packed into 214 wooden crates for the Atlantic crossing. An estimated 200,000 people lined the shore and a flotilla of small boats escorted the ship to Bedloe’s Island, now Liberty Island.
The arrival was only half the story. The statue’s stone pedestal was still unfinished — American fundraising had lagged — and the crates sat boxed for months. Publisher Joseph Pulitzer shamed thousands of small donors into closing the gap.
A gift symbolizing liberty spent its first American months as freight, waiting on a foundation the city hadn’t yet paid for.
Lady Liberty was finally reassembled and dedicated on October 28, 1886.
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