Lady Liberty Celebrates 125 Years By Going Online!

On Friday, October 28th, 2011 one of America's most famous landmarks - The Statue of Liberty AKA Liberty Enlightening The World, celebrated its 125th years of existence. The statue was given to the country by France in 1886, as a gesture of the friendship between the two countries and symbolized the love of liberty shared by both.

The 131ft. copper statue of the robed female figure depicting Libertas, the Roman goddess of Freedom carrying a torch, was originally designed to be a lighthouse and functioned as one for 16 years, until 1902.

However, it soon turned into a symbol of freedom to the thousands European immigrants that came to the USA to escape the devastating famine and war that swept through their countries in the mid 1900's. Today, the lady in green is one of the most popular tourist destinations clocking in over 3.5 million visitors each year.

In celebration of her 125th birthday, Lady Liberty's famous torch was fitted with five web cameras - Four to provide 24-hour video footage of the vista around and one to provide footage from inside the statue itself. In addition to that, 125 lucky immigrants from 40 countries got to take their oath of citizenship under this symbol of freedom.

The evening culminated with a spectacular show of fireworks after which, Lady Liberty closed its doors to the public to undergo a year of renovations. The $27.25million USD undertaking will include upgrades to the statue's 125-year-old pedestal and the 200-year old fort base from which she stands so proud. In addition to that, the statue's interior will be fitted with new stairways and elevators and its water and mechanical systems will be re-furbished. While visitors will still be able to visit and admire the statue from the outside, those wanting to take a peek inside, will either have to wait a year or simply check out the live feed from the statue by visiting sf.earthcam.com.

Happy 125th Birthday Lady Liberty!

Resources: Wikipedia.org,abc.go.com,latimesblogs.latimes.com