The 5 statues
Credits
On Liberty Island, on the way to the front of the statue, visitors come across a row of 5 statues representing key figures in the monument's history. These include Edouard René de Laboulaye, a French historian specializing in the United States. He was also a jurist. It was he who initiated the idea of building the monument. The second statue also features a Frenchman, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, the sculptor and friend of Laboulaye. His ambition was to create a gigantic work of art, capable of rivaling the wonders of Egypt. His project for a colossal statue at the entrance to the Suez Canal was diverted to create the Statue of Liberty. The third figure is the designer of the statue's internal structure, Gustave Eiffel. He would later become famous for his ability to build a wrought-iron tower over 300m high in the heart of Paris, for the World's Fair. These three figures were complementary, as one was an intellectual, the other an artist and the third an engineer. Between them, they had the skills to transform a vague idea of an offering to a friendly country, coupled with a more general notion of Liberty, into a real work of art. This trio was completed by two other figures, both American. The first is Joseph Pulitzer, a famous journalist of his time. He deserved his statue because he used his newspaper, the New York World, to secure American funding for the plinth, thus saving the project. The last statue is Emma Lazarus, who wrote a poem - repeated at the feet of the statue - that magnifies the colossus. The poem served to popularize the statue project and helped finance it.
Alexandre Gustave Eiffel
Alexandre Gustave Eiffel was born in Dijon on December 15, 1832 and died on December 27, 1923. He entered the École Centrale de Paris to study chemistry. After graduating, he became interested in metallurgy, and through his mother's connections was given the opportunity to work in this sector. Eventually, he was hired by Charles Nepveu, an engineer and builder of steam engines who also made equipment for the railroads. A year later, in 1857, Eiffel became head of the design office at Pauwels et Cie. His first major project was the construction of the Bordeaux Bridge (over 500 meters long), when he was just 25 years old.
From then on, he was responsible for several other bridges in the South-West region. Eiffel finally settled west of Paris at the end of 1866. In 1867, he set up his own company and built a number of bridges that would enhance his reputation in France and around the world. He perfected his technical innovations, notably during the assembly of the cantilever.
During the 1870s and 1880s, the Eiffel company was at the height of its success, and was in demand the world over. Construction projects became increasingly complex, and were carried out with brio (for example, Gustave Eiffel designed the entire framework of the Statue of Liberty in New York to support the weight of Bartholdi's sculpture). Associated with the work of Alexandre Gustave Eiffel is, of course, the creation of what has become the symbol of France: the Eiffel Tower.
The date of the Eiffel Tower's construction could have been a forgotten anecdote, but it survived the Exposition Universelle. Despite fierce criticism, the Tower was an immediate success, surviving even though it was originally scheduled to be demolished 20 years after its construction. Gustave Eiffel, the visionary, was a man with a passion for science. Gustave Eiffel loved experimenting, particularly in meteorology and aeronautics. While he is particularly well known as an engineer, his scientific spirit is less well known, even though it is reflected in his engineering work. To give an example, he built an aerodynamic wind tunnel on the Champ de Mars in 1909, which was moved to the 16th arrondissement in 1911 to provide a larger research laboratory.