"'Liberty Enlightening the World.'

So (Frédéric-Auguste) Bartholdi named his copper-skinned goddess, lifting a torch and stepping out of broken shackles. Her tablet, a meaningful symbol to his fellow Freemasons, represents the rule of law and is inscribed in Roman numerals July 4, 1776. To hold this 151-foot [46-meter] statue against the Atlantic gales, he called on the brilliant bridge engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel for the tallest iron support of its day."

(Text adapted from "Liberty Lifts Her Lamp Once More," July 1986, National Geographic magazine)