Statue of Liberty
in New York Harbour
The statue, Liberty Enlightening the World, was designed by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi.
See here for Bartholdi's account of the design and construction of the statue.[1]
Construction began in 1875 in the Monduit and Bechet workshops, successors to Gaget, Gauthier et Compagnie, located at 25 rue de Chazelles in Paris. Auguste Bartholdi enlisted the architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc and the engineer Gustave Eiffel [2]
From Engineering 1886/12/10: 'In the construction of this statue it was decided to make it of repousse or hammered copper. A model was first made one-sixteenth the size, and after all the details had been worked out it enlarged to one-fourth the size, and subsequently a full-sized model was constructed, divided into sections to facilitate handling. The one-fourth sized model was divided into sections, and each section into squares, and measuring points established, some parts requiring as many as 300 such points with 1200 extra marks. Wooden frames were constructed and plaster put upon them (see Fig. 1); measurements increased four times were taken from the sections of the model, and the shape carefully marked out and moulded, wooden frames were then made by fitting the edges of the boards to the inequalities of the plaster. The sheets of copper, 300 in all, were put upon the inside of these frames and beaten by wooden mallets into a fac-simile of each section, braces were put inside the statue, and the frame work upon which the copper plates were to go was scientifically planned as a bridge would be to resist strains of various kinds; to prevent electrical action due to the salt air acting upon the two metals, canvas cloth is introduced between them where the rivetting takes place. ....'