Scavenger Hunt: Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island

The photos in this post are from when our dear friends Kurt & Kim came to visit at the end of December 2010.  Erik and they went on a tour of Lady Liberty while I was at work the first day of the their visit.  My cousin Kim took me on a harbor cruise to check out Ellis Island in July/August 2001 when I was visiting before starting college.  I have photos from that but fortunately they are not digital so haha. :)  So I've seen her up close before.  Not as close as they did, but at least they got great photos.

Anyway, the Statue of Liberty was originally intended to show support for the Union cause in the Civil War.  The actual official name of the statue is "Liberty Enlightening the World".  (Ch. 93) Yeah, I like the nickname better too.  While the French agreed to pay for construction, it was up to the Americans to pay for the installation, including the pedestal that was designed by Richard Morris Hunt.  (Ch. 93)  There was a large fundraising campaign and in October 1886 it was officially unveiled by President Grover Cleveland.  (Ch. 93)

The lady from the front.  I was told it was freezing.

From the back.

You can see the tablet in background, which has the words from
the poem by Emma Lazarus, "The New Colossus".  "Give me your tired, your poor..."

Stages of construction. 
Apparently her "skin" is only 3 millimeters thick!  (that's like 2 pennies) (Ch. 93)

You can see my hubby taking the photo in the reflection.  So cute!

From the crown (I think that's where the photo was taken), you could see Ellis Island.  Like I said above I went there when I was about 17 and did the whole tour.  It was really cool to see all the names of the people that went through Ellis Island.  I found out from Erik's mom that some of his family went through Ellis Island.  Too bad we probably won't go back to see their names.  But I like to think I saw them and just didn't know that I would be related to them like in a movie flashback.

Ellis Island opened for immigrant processing in 1892.  (Ch. 96)  The building as it currently is was built in 1900 and 12 million immigrants passed through the Great Hall until it closed for lack of activity in 1954.  (Ch. 96)  It's estimated that 40% of Americans can trace at least one ancestor to someone who came through Ellis Island.  (Ch. 96)