LIBERTY ISLAND, NEW YORK: On October 28, 1886, 137 years ago, the Statue of Liberty was officially unveiled in the United States on Liberty Island in New York City's New York Harbor.
According to the National Park Service (NPS), the Franco-American Union and the City of New York organized the unveiling ceremony.
The celebration also led to the beginning of a New York City tradition, the first-ever ticker-tape parade honoring the Statue initially called the 'Liberty Enlightening the World'.
President Grover Cleveland presided over the ceremony, and more than one million people attended the festivities.
Statue of Liberty was gift from France to the United States
France gifted the statue to the US to celebrate the country's independence. According to NPS, in 1865, Edouard Rene Lefebvre de Laboulaye, a senator for life in the Third Republic of France, put forward the idea of gifting a monument built by France to the US.
The gesture was made to "commemorate the perseverance of freedom and democracy in the United States and to honor the work of the late President Abraham Lincoln."
"Laboulaye hoped that by calling attention to the recent achievements of the United States, the French people would be inspired to create their own democracy in the face of a repressive monarchy," according to the NPS.
For his initiative, Laboulaye is known as the "father of the Statue of Liberty." Unfortunately, he passed away in 1883 before the unveiling ceremony.
French sculptor Auguste Bartholdi supported Laboulaye's proposal and started to design the statue in 1870. He even traveled to the US in 1871 and selected Bedloe's Island as the site for the statue.
According to Bartholdi, the site was a "gateway to America" because the small island was visible to every ship entering the New York Harbor.
The statue, assembled in pieces, reached the New York Harbor on June 17, 1885. However, the pedestal for the Statue in Bedloe's Island was not completed till 1886.
The Statue of Liberty was unveiled in grand celebration
The ceremony day was "wet and foggy," says the NPS website. However, this was not an obstacle for the million people who waited for the French flag draping the colossal statue’s face to drop so they could see her facial features for the first time.
The celebration included a naval parade of 300 ships decorated in red to the island and over 2,000 men attended the official unveiling.
As Bertholdi released the tricolor French flag, uncovering Lady Liberty's face, a roar of guns, whistles, and applause sounded as New Yorkers cheered the country's defining new landmark.
President Cleveland praised the sculptor as "the greatest man in America today."
"The dream of my life is accomplished; I see the symbol of unity and friendship between two nations — two great republics," said Bertholdi before the celebration.
Statue of Liberty is iconic symbol for US ideals of 'liberty and freedom'
The Statue of Liberty continues to be the iconic symbol of the United States.
It was a symbol of patriotism during World War I and World War II and even survived the September 11 attacks, which destroyed the Twin Towers located barely two miles away.
The TIME in 2009 called the monument "a fixture of New York City and a symbol for the nation."
