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New York. The Beating Heart of the World
Sezione 1
Sezione 2
Statue of Liberty
Grover Cleveland. 1889
PLAY ME
The Statue of Liberty
arrived in New York harbour in 1885 as a gift
from the French people as a symbol of friendship. One hundred and fifty-one feet tall, it was built to celebrate the centenary of the American Declaration of Independence. Designed by architect Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi and officially named "Liberty Enlightening the World," the statue will represent freedom
and democracy for the nation and the world in the years to come. The statue faces east, welcoming ships as they arrive, while at the same time looking towards its birthplace, France. In October 1886, I inaugurated the statue in front of thousands of spectators; on the morning of the inauguration, while more than a million New Yorkers
were watching the parade, I organised a celebration of friendship with France. The parade made its way to Battery Park, the southern tip of Manhattan, via Fifth Avenue and Broadway. As the parade passed the New York Stock Exchange, businessmen threw confetti out of their windows, inaugurating a tradition that continues to this day. On that day,
it represented the union of peoples in the name of freedom. Lately, plans have been underway to open the entrance to the main station to immigrants to the United States on Ellis Island, near Bedloe Island, where the statue is located, so that in the coming years, immigrants will be welcomed into New York harbour by the gaze of the 'Lady Liberty'!
Sezione 3
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