The Lady Who Lifted a Light

In France, sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi dreams of a giant lady holding a torch, and engineer Gustave Eiffel helps make her strong from the inside out. When the statue proves too large to travel in a few giant sections, the builders take her apart into many pieces and send her across the ocean as a gift. In New York, poet Emma Lazarus offers welcoming words while the great statue is raised in the harbor. At last, arriving children like Lina look up at the shining torch and feel that the new land is opening its arms.

In a workshop in France, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi spread out his sketches and lifted his hands in the air. "Mon ami," he said, "she must be enormous. She must hold a light for the whole harbor." Copper sheets leaned against the wall, and the room smelled like warm metal and coal smoke.

Gustave Eiffel came to help make the great lady strong. "Steady first," he said, tapping a drawing. "Then high." Together they shaped a hidden iron framework and fastened copper skin over it, piece by piece, while hammers rang like bright bells.

At first, Bartholdi was sure the statue could cross the ocean in only a few giant sections. Gustave looked at the towering pieces and said, "No. Too rough a trip." So the builders took the lady apart again. Copper arms, iron ribs, and the great torch covered the floor, and the workshop turned into a wooden forest of shipping crates.

Then the pieces began their sea journey. Crates creaked in the belly of a ship, waves thumped the hull, and salt spray blew over the deck. Across the Atlantic, the gift from France traveled one careful piece at a time.

In New York, workers lifted the pieces up again while the harbor smelled of rope, tar, and wet stone. Nearby, Emma Lazarus listened to stories of families crossing the sea. She laid her hand on the table and said softly, "A harbor should not stare with a hard face. It should welcome."

On another ship, Lina stood at the rail with other children and searched the foggy harbor. She had been certain a giant statue would look stern, like a guard at a gate. Then the mist thinned. The raised torch shone pale gold, and Lina whispered, "She is holding the light up for us."

Higher and higher the builders raised the giant lady in the harbor. Iron held her steady inside, copper curved around her outside, and at last the torch reached the sky. Ships below looked small as toys, and the water flashed silver around the island.

When Lina's ship glided into the harbor, she lifted her hand the way the great lady did. Around her, children leaned forward to see better, their coats brushing and their breath puffing in the cool air. The torch burned above the water, and Lina raised her own small light of a hand back to it.