Harper's
July, 1884
Vol. XI. - No.47
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Harper's July, 1884 Vol. XI. - No.47 |
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For twelve days the steamer had been steaming on and on toward the western horizon, and, just as fast, the horizon had seemed to flyaway, leaving the ship always in the center of the great circle. Soon the magical change was to come, and the land would appear to rise out of the water. Already the sea-gulls had come back; the sun was warmer, and it seemed as if we were coming to a new country. Everyone was on deck, watching for the first sight of the land. More than a thousand men, women, and children were on board, - and to most of them the great continent just under that pale blue horizon was a land of hope and promise. Land must be very near, for at the foremast head a sailor ran up a new flag. It seemed to flutter over them all in a friendly way, and perhaps some of them looked at it with new hope and fresh courage. "Fire Island abeam!" cried out the sailor on the lookout. Everyone gazed off to the right. There it stood, just a gray tower, apparently standing up in the water. Strange they had not noticed it before. Then some one began to point at a blue cloud low down on the water. Was it mist, or fog, - or something else? The forward deck was packed with people of every nation and tongue, and all were of the great nation of poor people, which somehow seems to be the greatest nation of all. There had been loud laughter, talking, and confusion of tongues for days. Now, under the intense white sunlight, the warm, languid air, and the faint smell of land, they were hushed and silent. The new home was rising from the sea. Slowly the wonders grew, - the great mass of the Highlands with its two white eyes ever looking down on the sea; the magic city on the white beaches; the strange ships and boats; the vast bay and the rising shores, green with deep woods; then the grand entrance between the gray old forts, so different from European forts; the harbor, the great river, the wonderful bridge, and the city. By tens of thousands, month after month, year after year, just such throngs of people sail into New York harbor, looking for liberty and a fair chance in the world. Once a certain man from France was on board one of these ships, as it sailed into the bay. Perhaps he too saw the great assemblage of the emigrants looking in hope and wonder on the new land; and the thought came to him - What a joy and encouragement it would be to these people if they should see something to welcome them, to remind them that this is a republic. What if there stood, like a great guardian, at the entrance of the continent, a colossal statue - a grand figure of a woman holding aloft a torch, and symbolizing Liberty enlightening the World! The man was a sculptor, and his name was Auguste Bartholdi. When he went home to France, he broached his idea of the great statue, and discussed it with his friends and acquaintances. Some doubted, but others approved; gradually, many people - including leading men of the nation - became interested in the scheme; and, after several years of working and waiting, the money required for building the statue came in from the rich and the poor of France. The French people decided to build the statue, and to present it to the American people. When the sculptor conceived the idea of the statue, he, no doubt, thought of the different ways in which it could be made. It could be carved in stone or cast in metal. Think of a stone statue almost one hundred and fifty feet high,- higher than many a church-steeple, and about as high as the arch of the Brooklyn Bridge. Who could lift it into place? Who could carve such a monster? It might be constructed of smaller stones put together. But that would never do. The cracks between the stones would show, and it would be liable to fall to pieces. The Obelisk in Central Park is in one stone, but then its height is less than half the height named for the proposed statue. Clearly, stone would never do. Could it be cast in bronze -even in small pieces - and then put together? Not easily; it would be too heavy and too costly. At one time a certain sculptor, called "Il Cerano", built a colossal statue near Atona, on the shore of Lake Maggiore, in Italy. It was made on quite a different plan from those employed with carved statues or with statues cast in bronze. It was made of copper, in thin sheets, laid upon a frame or skeleton of stone, wood, and iron. Such a method of work is called repousse, which means " hammered " work, because the thin sheets of metal are hammered into shape. Bartholdi, the projector of the great statue of Liberty, decided that it, too, must be done in repousse, or sheets of hammered bronze. So when the money for the work had been fully secured, the actual labor began; and a strange, curious labor it was. First, there had to be a sketch or model. This was a figure of the statue in clay, to give an idea of how it would look. The public approved of this model, and then the first real study of the work was made, - a plaster statue, just one-sixteenth the size of the intended statue. 
BUILDING THE FULL-SIZE PLASTER MODEL OF THE LEFT HAND. (SHOWING THE WOODEN FRAME-WORK) The next step was to make another model just four times as large, or one-fourth the size of the real statue. Now the model began to assume something of the proportions intended, and it was carefully studied and worked over to make it as perfect as possible. This quarter-size model being finished, then came the task of making the full-size model in plaster. But this had to be made in sec- tions. For instance, the first section would include the bas& on which the figure stood, the feet, and the hem of the garment. The next section would include a circle quite round the long flowing dress, just above the hem. The third section would stand above this and show more of the folds of the dress, and reach part way up to the knee. In like manner, the whole figure would be divided into sections. The quarter-size model was first divided in this way, and then to layout the full-size plan it was only necessary to make a plan of each section four times as large as the section actually was in the model. Every part of the model was covered with marks or dots for guides, and by measuring from dot to dot, increasing the measurement four times, and then transferring it to the larger model, an exact copy just four times as large was made. For each of these large sections, however, there had to be a support of some kind, before the plaster could be laid on. Having marked on the floor an outline plan of the enlarged section, a wooden frame-work was built up inside the plan. Then upon this frame-work plaster was roughly spread. It soon resembled, in a rude way, the conesponding section of the quarter-size model, but was four times as large. Then the workmen copied in this pile of plaster every feature of the model section, measuring and measuring, again and again, from dot to dot, correcting by means of plumb-lines, and patiently trying and retrying till an exact copy - only in proportions four times as large was attained. The picture on this page shows the wooden frame of one of the hands, and a portion of the plaster already laid on the frame. The great irregularity of the drapery made it necessary to put three hundred marks on each section, besides twelve hundred smaller guide- marks, in order to insure an exact correspondence in proportion between the enlarged sections of the full-size model and the sections of the quarter-size model. Each of these marks, moreover, had to be measured three times on both models, and after that came all the remeasurements, to prove that not a single mistake had been made. 
AT WORK UPON THE LEFT HAND When these sections in plaster had been completed, then came the work of making wooden molds that should be exact copies both in size and modeling of the plaster. These were all carefully made by hand. It was a long, tedious, and difficult piece of work; but there are few workmen who could do it better than these French carpenters. Each piece was a mold of a part of the statue, exactly fitting every projection, depression, and curve of that portion of the figure or drapery. Into these wooden molds sheets of metal were laid, and pressed or beaten down till they fitted the irregular surfaces of the molds. All the repousse, or hammered work, was done from the back, or inside, of the sheet. If the mold is an exact copy of a part of the statue, it is easy to see that the sheet of metal, when made to fit it, will, when taken out and turned over, be a copy of that part of the statue. These sheets were of copper, and each was from one to three yards square. Each formed a part of the bronze statue, and of course no two were alike. In this complicated manner, by making first a sketch, then a quarter-size model, then a full-size model in sections, then hundreds of wooden copies, and lastly by beating into shape three hundred sheets of copper, the enormous statue was finished. These three hundred bent and hammered plates, weighing in all eighty-eight tons, form the outside of the statue. They are very thin, and while they fit each other perfectly, it is quite plain that if they were put together in their proper order they would never stand alone. It would be like building a dwelling-house out of boards placed on edge. It would surely tumble down by its own weight or be blown over by the first storm. These hammered sheets make the outside of the statue; but there must be also a skeleton, a bony structure inside, to hold it together. This is of iron beams, firmly riveted together, and making a support to which the copper shell can be fastened. On page 731 is a picture of the great statue partially finished. The lower half of the figure appears almost completed. Above that can be seen, inside the staging, the great iron skeleton that supports the figure. High above the staging rise the iron bones of the uplifted arm, - not a handsome arm as yet, because it is not clothed with its rich, dark copper skin. The houses seen in the background give a good idea of the height and proportions of the great statue. The head and the hand, already finished, can be seen on the ground at the left of the statue. The right hand and torch were made first, and were shown at the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia in 1876, and, after that, were for some time erected in Madison Square, New York City. The head was also shown in Paris at the time of the last exposition. A picture on page 730 shows the head as it stood in the work-shop. In erecting such a great statue, two things had to be considered that seem very trifling, and yet, if neglected, might destroy the statue in one day; or cause it to crumble slowly to pieces. One is the sun, the other is the sea breeze. Either of these could destroy the great copper figure, and something must be done to prevent such a disaster. The heat of the sun would expand the metal and pull it out of shape, precisely as it does pull the Brooklyn Bridge out of shape every day. The bridge is made in four parts, and when they expand with the heat of the sun they slide one past the other, and no harm is done. The river span rises and falls day and night, as heat and cold alternate. The great copper statue 'is likewise in two parts, the frame-work of iron and the copper covering; and while they are securely fastened together they can move one over the other. Each bolt will slip a trifle as the copper expands in the hot August sunshine, and slide back again when the freezing winds blow and the vast figure shrinks together in the cold. Besides this, the copper surface is so thin and elastic that it will bend slightly when heated and still keep its general shape. The salt air blowing in from the sea has thin fingers and a bitter, biting tongue. If it finds a crack where it can creep in between, the copper surface and iron skeleton, there will be trouble at once. These metals do not agree together, and where there is salt moisture in the air they seem to quarrel more bitterly than ever. It seems that every joining of points of copper and iron makes a tiny battery, and so faint shivers of electricity would run through all the statue, slowly corroding and eating it into dust. This curious, silent, and yet sure destruction must be prevented, and so every joint throughout the statue, wherever copper touches iron, must be protected with little rags stuffed between the metals to keep them from quarreling. It is the same wherever two different metals touch each other. Imagine what a tremendous battery the Liberty would make, with its tons of copper surface and monstrous skeleton of iron. However, a little care prevents all danger, as provision will be made, of course, for keeping the metals from touching each other. When, in 1870, Bartholdi sailed into our beautiful bay, and had his grand day-dream of this wonderful bronze figure lifting aloft her torch, he saw away to the south-west of the Battery, and opposite the New Jersey shore, a grassy island on which stood a stone fort. This island, which contains only twelve acres, lies about a mile and a half south of Jersey City, and all vessels going in or out of port must pass it. It is also in full view of the lower parts of New York and Brooklyn. To the west and south spreads the "ride bay, with the low Jersey shore and the blue Orange Mountains beyond. To the south rise the hills of Staten Island and the Narrows, with a glimpse of the sea between. On clear days, even the Highlands can be seen glimmering on the far southern horizon, nearly thirty miles away. And here, alone on an island, but in sight of three cities, the great statue of Liberty will stand. Her torch, indeed, will be in plain sight of all the cities round about: Newark, the Oranges, all the white villages clinging to the hills beyond, the summer cities by the sea, and that green and wooded city that with dull white eyes looks down on the bay from the silent hills on Long Island. Two million people can plainly see the great bronze figure from their homes, and another million, in country homes, will see her lamp by night; while men, women, and children of every nation will pass in ships beneath her mighty shadow. 
"LIBERTY ENLIGHTENING THE WORLD" The colossal Statue by A. Bartholdi, to be erected on Bedloe's Island, New York Harbor They call the place where the statue is to stand Bedloe's Island, because old Isaac Bedloe, a sturdy Dutchman of New Amsterdam, bought it of the colonial government, We do not knoW much about him, except that he died in 1672. However, we may confidently assume that the island was seen by Hendrick Hudson when he first explored the Hudson River. The Dutch colonists must have passed close to it on their way to Communipaw, where they first settled before they founded New Amsterdam. |
The Head in the Workshop | Afterward, during the Revolution, it was called Kennedy's Island, as Captain Kennedy, commander of the British naval station in New York, bought it. He built a house upon the island and used it as a summer residence. At the end of the war it became the property of the State of New York, and at the time of the yellow fever alarm, in 1797, it was used as a quarantine for a short time. In 1800 it was given by the State to the United States, and in 1814 the Government began to build a fort on the island. In 1841 the present star-shaped fort was built, at a cost of $213,000. It was thought at the time to be a fine affair, as it would mount over seventy guns and hold a garrison of three hundred and fifty men. During the Rebellion the place was used as an hospital, and a number of hospital buildings were built on the island. With this exception, the fort has never been practically utilized. We are not at war with anyone, nor do we wish to harm any nation; so it happens that this, like many of our forts, has never been |
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fully supplied with guns or men. And the great guns now used on ships would soon shell to pieces a stone fort like that on Bedloe's Island. It is a queer place, indeed, and reminds one of the illustrations in an old picture-book. As you go up from the wharf on the east side, you cross a road that follows the top of the sea-wall, and come at once to the outside battery, already falling to ruin. Here are a few rusty old guns, and behind them rise the granite walls of the fort. There are on the west side an arched entrance, a moat, and a place for a draw-bridge - like those of an old castle. In the south-east corner is a sally-port, a cavern-like entrance, dark and crooked and closed by massive iron doors, not unlike the doors of a big safe. Within the fort there was a parade-ground, or open space, a few houses for the men and officers, and immense tanks for storing water, and great bomb-proof vaults where the men could hide if the shells flew too thick. |
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It was decided that the lofty pedestal for the statue should be built in the square within the fort. The parade-ground, however, appeared to be level sand. Clearly, it would not do to rest so great a weight on sand, and it would be necessary, therefore, to make excavations until a firm foundation was secured, far below. This seemed an easy task, but it proved to be an exceedingly difficult one. Under the parade-ground were the old water-tanks, the store-rooms, And bomb-proof vaults, and these were of solid brick and stone, very heavily built. A pit or excavation, ninety feet square, was made and was carried deep enough to go below the fort to the solid ground beneath. Then the great pit had to be filled up again with some material that would not yield or sag. For this purpose, wet concrete was used - a mixture of cement, broken stones, and water. As soon as it is put into place and beaten down, it hardens and becomes |
The Head, as exhibited in Paris |
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like stone. Layer after layer of concrete was put in, till the whole pit was filled up solidly. The mass of concrete is fifty-three feet deep and ninety feet square at the bottom. It will be like one solid block of stone-work, sunk deep in the ground, and rising to the level of the broad walk on top of the walls of the fort; but it is only the foundation on which the pedestal is to be built. The pedestal will be eighty feet high, and the base of the statue will rest upon the top of the pedestal. At the beginning of this year the filled-in foundation had reached to the level of the old parade-ground, and at the same time came the news from Paris that the statue was finished. The last sheet of dark bronze-colored copper was ready, and every bar and beam and bolt of the large iron skeleton was complete. As you are reading this, preparations are making to go on with the work on our side. The French people have done their part. They have built and paid for the statue, and it lies ready to be sent over in hundreds of pieces, each marked, and ready to be fitted together to form the immense figure. Now it is our turn. The statue is a gift - a free present of respect and good-will from the people of France. It is our part to receive it with honor, and put it up in the place assigned to it. America is to build the pedestal on which the great bronze figure will stand. The pedestal will be of stone, rising in a massive square eighty-two feet above the ground. The solid block of concrete will be hidden under the grass, securely holding up the pedestal and the statue above. There will be stair-ways within the pedestal and balconies near the top, commanding a fine view of the beautiful bay and the three cities. The figure itself, from the top of the head to the foot, on which it stands posed as if about to step forward, is one hundred and ten feet and a half high; the forefinger is eight feet long and foutfeen in circumference at the second joint; the head is fourteen feet high, and forty persons can stand within it. There will be a stair-way within the statue, leading to the head, and another in the extended arm, by which ascent may be made into the torch, which will hold fifteen persons. A great light will be placed in the torch, and the pointed diadem, encircling the head, will be studded with electric lights. The total weight of the statue, including both the iron skeleton and the copper covering, will, it is said, amount to one hundred thousand pounds. 
THE PARTIALLY-FINISHED STATUE SURROUNDED BY SCAFFOLDING As the summer advances, the work on the pedestal will be resumed; if all goes well, the cornerstone will be laid on the 4th of July, 1884. When the entire pedestal is finished, the great Liberty, in hundreds of separate pieces, will arrive from France; and then will come the grand work of putting the noble statue together. It will be well worth seeing, for it will be a repetition, in part, of the curious work of building it. The pedestal being finished, the first step will be to fasten the great iron frame-work securely to the stone-work. Long bolts will extend deep into the pedestal, and be anchored firmly in the concrete, so that nothing less than an earthquake can ever throw the structure down. The skeleton in place, then will come the work of putting on the thin plates of copper that make the outside of the figure. These pieces will be fastened with bolts that will not show on the outside, and the joints between the sheets will be so fine that it will be difficult to find them, and so the work will appear from the outside like one solid piece of rich dark bronze. In Union Square, New York, and facing the statue of Washington, is a bronze figure of Lafayette. It represents a man, of graceful figure and handsome, open face, in the act of making offer of his sword to the country he admired - the country that sorely needed his aid. The left hand is extended as if in greeting and friendly self-surrender, and the right hand, which holds the sword, is pressed against the breast as if implying that his whole heart goes with his sword. The statue well expresses the warm and generous devotion which, as we all know, the French Marquis rendered to this country during the War of the Revolution, and is a fitting memorial to the noble friend of Washington and of America. Look at this statue the next time you pass Union Square or visit New York City. For it, also, was designed by Bartho1di - who planned the great bronze Liberty. He has made many other statues, and almost everyone seems to have this strong and vigorous character, and to embody and express a meaning that all who see can understand. He has done good work, and we need have no fear that after the great figure is complete it will not be grand or beautiful. But no matter how imposing its appearance, it might be a failure, in one sense, if it did not clearly express a meaning. The Lafayette in Union Square seems ready to speak. And so, too, the new Liberty evidently has something to say. What will this grand figure mean? Well, in the first place, it will commemorate the generous part which the French played in the War of Independence, one hundred years ago. And it will represent the good-will and kindly feeling existing between the two nations which are, today, the only republics among the leading nations of the world. But there is a still wider meaning in this noble statue, and it is this meaning which the sculptor has embodied in the pose and expression of the figure itself. This colossal statue stands for Liberty enlightening the World. In one hand she lifts aloft a torch; in the other she clasps a book. Perhaps the book means law, or right doing. She stands for liberty; but it is the true, unselfish liberty which respects the rights of others. Moreover, she stands for the people. She means that, under the shadow of liberty, the people are greater than king or emperor; that peace is better than war, friendship wiser than enmity, love and respect better than selfishness and unkindness; and that liberty is for all peoples throughout the wide world. Image entitled "Liberty Enlightening the World" was drawn by W. Taber. All other images by Camille Piton. |
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