Big Apple History . Building the Big Apple . Raising the Statue


	The Statue of Liberty's toes wait for her assembly at Bedloe's Island, 1885.

It made sense...in a way. The only method to see all of the giant Statue of Liberty was from the viewpoint of a giant. Shipped over from France in pieces, the statue stayed that way through the early 1880s.

The separate pieces were scattered about New York -- the huge head here, a gargantuan foot there. The hand with the torch stood in Madison Square, where visitors could climb up inside it.

For a long time it seemed like this statue would never be put together and raised. Some New Yorkers even suggested leaving it in parts permanently. People could travel about the city and visit the different pieces one by one. A "serial statue," they called it.

However, NEW YORK WORLD publisher Joseph Pulitzer felt the uncompleted statue was an embarrassment. The obstacle, he knew, was money. The French people had paid for the statue. Americans were supposed to pay for an 89-foot pedestal. A fund was started in 1884. But a year later, the pedestal stood just 15 feet high.

Pulitzer begged his readers to donate anything they could. A total of 121,000 people answered his please, with most sending less than a dollar. Finally, the statue could stand completed!

Illustration: Courtesy of the Library of Congress.