Why Is the Statue of Liberty Green?

The Statue of Liberty is the first Lady of freedom, in New York harbor, welcoming all into a land of personal freedoms and new possibilities. For over a century, immigrants have seen the Statue of Liberty as a welcome sign to America and a symbol of salvation from their hard lives and persecution.

The color of the Statue of Liberty is a result of the elements (snow, rain, wind and sun) interacting with the copper used in its construction. As a metal, copper readily oxidizes in the air to form copper oxide. Further exposure to the elements and the addition of air pollution cause the copper oxide to convert to another copper compound, called copper sulfate.

This copper salt has a greenish-blue color. The statue has a thin layer of this copper salt on the outside layer of the original copper and this is why the Statue of Liberty is green in color.

This process of oxidation of copper is called patination and the color is called patina. The patina layer on the copper is a mere 0.005” in thickness. Its presence protects the copper from further corrosion. The patina of the Statue of Liberty is one of her trademarks.

Building History of the Statue of Liberty

The beautiful Lady of Liberty was a gift to the United States on the occasion of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The original Statue of Liberty was designed and sculpted by its artist Frederic Auguste Bartholdi. It stands 151 feet high and weighs 225 tons. The inner core of the statue is constructed of an iron framework that is overlaid in a sheet of copper. The framework was designed by Alexandre Gustav Eiffel, the designer of the Eiffel Tower. The marvelous Lady was then renovated in 1916 and again in the mid 1980s. She served as a lighthouse for the New York Harbor up until the renovation in the mid 1980s.

The building and delivery of the Statue took ten years and the dedication of the Statute was ten years late for the Centennial celebration. Liberty Island, formerly known as Bedloe Island, was selected by Bartholdi to hold the statue. Funding for the pedestal the statue sits upon was difficult to raise; but, as a result of a scathing editorial by Joseph Pulitzer, funds for the installation of the statue were received in August 1885.

The completed Statue of Liberty was then disassembled and crated for shipment from France to the United States. There were 350 individual pieces which required 214 crates to package. The French provided a frigate, the "Isere,” to transport the statue across the Atlantic. The ship departed France in July 1884 and arrived in New York Harbor in June of 1885. The reassembly of the statue required four months. The Statue of Liberty was dedicated on October 28, 1886.

During the 1916 renovation, the torch had the original copper cut away and replaced with windows. Over many years of exposure to snow, rain, and sun leakage caused corrosion to occur so during the renovation in the mid 1980s, the torch was removed and placed in the Statue of Liberty museum. A replica torch was constructed and lined in gold to make the torch brighter. It was then refitted to the statue. The replacement torch was aged artificially to match the green color of the statue. The other major change to Lady Liberty was that all the iron supports were removed and replaced with steel supports due to the severe corrosion of the iron.

Message of the Statue of Liberty

Her torch shines the light of freedom to all those lost in oppression from around the world. Her message is one of hope for a better tomorrow and freedom to those in the world that have been denied their own liberties.

The Statue of Liberty has inspired countless poets to write about her; but perhaps the most famous and best known poem, “The New Colossus” was written by Emma Lazarus. Her declaration has been the cry of the American people for many decades past. May its call still stand strong today when more places in the world are facing strife, hunger and need.

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

  The Statue of Liberty is open for visitation most days of the year.