July 4, 2009: Lady Liberty's Left Foot

[xoxoxoBruce]

You've all seen pictures of the Statue of Liberty, many of you have seen her in person, and I'm sure some of you have sailed out to the island and climbed up that damned spiral staircase, as I have. One step and wait... one step and wait... nose pressed into someones back... hotter than hell in summer... noisy year round... perched on those little wedge shaped steps... just to peak out those little windows in the crown, at NYC skyline and the harbor.

Worth every minute of it!!! Oh how I wanted to climb the ladder to the torch.
But there's something you didn't see...

Invisible to tourists, the Statue of Liberty's 25-foot-long (7.6-meter-long) left foot, pictured in 1984, brushes against a little-known detail that nevertheless loomed large in sculptor Frederic Bartholdi's design.
Broken chains beneath the statue's toga symbolize freedom from oppression in general and the United States' abolition of slavery—just 20 years prior to the statue's dedication—in particular.

Check out the National Geographic pictures of the refurbished statue at;
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...res/index.html


And for our Brit visitors now touring the US, diminished & persistence, fireworks.