Liberty's Torch: The Great Adventure to Build the Statue of Liberty

by Elizabeth Mitchell,
The San Francisco Chronicle, July 2, 2014

When he returned to France after a trip to Cairo in 1856, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, a 22-year-old sculptor, apparently told a friend, "When I discover a subject grand enough, I will honor that subject by building the tallest statue in the world." Before long, he found his subject, and his Statue of Liberty became an iconic monument, visited by millions of tourists each year.