Recently Discovered Drawings for the Statue of Liberty Hint at a Last-Minute Change
Smithsonian takes a look Gustave Eiffel’s sketches of the Statue De La Liberté and what it possibly could have looked like instead of the wonder of the world we know today.
Gustave Eiffel may be best known for the Parisian tower that bears his name, but the French engineer played a key role in the construction of another structure with worldwide fame: the Statue of Liberty. A recently discovered set of Eiffel’s original schematic drawings for Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi’s statue—which weren’t previously known to have survived—show the development of his innovative design. For more than a century, Eiffel’s engineering ideas helped the statue withstand the high winds and salty air of New York Harbor. More curiously, the drawings also hint at a last minute change to Lady Liberty’s upraised, torch-bearing arm.
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