Yasmin Sabina Khan

On June 17, 1885, the French ship carrying the large wooden crates that contained the Statue of Liberty arrived in New York Harbor. The statue had been temporarily erected in Paris, then disassembled and packed into over 200 wooden crates for transport across the Atlantic. Erection of the statue began the following spring (due to construction delays, the pedestal at Bedloe’s Island was not quite ready in 1885) and was completed in October 1886.

American ships rushed out to greet the Isère as it approached the coast, and ceremonies accompanied the arrival of the ship at Bedloe’s Island.