The Statue of Liberty Used to be a Lighthouse

The Statue of Liberty is a world-famous symbol of freedom, given in 1886 by France to the United States in celebration of American Independence. 

Nearby Ellis Island was the first stop for millions of immigrants to the U.S. in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The national monument recalls this period of massive immigration to the United States.

Inside the statue, a plaque added in 1903 is engraved with words from "The New Colossus", an 1883 poem by Emma Lazarus:

Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door! 

Lady Liberty has pushed her torch high into the New York City skyline since 1886, but at one time, the grand statue did more than just inspire Americans — it was also a lighthouse.

The same year French sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi oversaw completion of his copper creation (formally named “Liberty Enlightening the World”), President Grover Cleveland approved a plan for the statue to be lit as a lighthouse. 

Engineers believed the Statue of Liberty’s torch, at 305 feet above sea level, could act as a navigational tool for ships approaching the New York Harbor, and set to work installing nine electric lamps within the torch, plus more along Lady Liberty’s feet and in the statue’s interior. 

At 7:35 p.m. on November 1, 1886, engineers flipped on the power switch, washing the Statue of Liberty in light for the first time. 

However, the lights stayed on for just one week due to a lack of funding, and it took two weeks of darkness before the U.S. Lighthouse Board could secure an emergency budget. 

Even once the lights were turned back on, some questioned the statue’s efficacy as a lighthouse. 

Newspapers reported that while the lights were initially planned to reach 100 miles or more out at sea, in reality the torch was visible just 24 miles from the harbor. 

By the early 20th century, the lighthouse was considered “useless” for boat navigation, and on March 1, 1902, the U.S. War Department, with approval from President Theodore Roosevelt, extinguished the light permanently.

Lady Liberty opted to go green long before most New Yorkers. In 1885, French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi dismantled his gleaming copper-skinned creation — a gift to the U.S. from the French people — into 350 pieces for its voyage across the Atlantic. 

The statue was eventually rebuilt atop Bedloe’s Island (now called Liberty Island) in New York Harbor, but during the next two decades or so, the landmark underwent a prominent color change. 

The now-familiar minty tint is actually a patina, a common coating that forms on copper as well as its alloys brass and bronze. 

The patina is a result of the chemical reactions the statue has endured in its environment, an urban center surrounded by water. 

Over the years, the copper has reacted to oxygen, sulfuric acid, chloride, and other components of the surrounding air and water, changing its mineral composition in a gradual evolution. 

Today, chemists believe the seafoam-green hue has stabilized. And while there’s occasionally been talk of repainting the statue or polishing off her patina, public sentiment and input from copper manufacturers has kept “Liberty Enlightening the World” from being returned to her initial metallic sheen. 

Fortunately, the patina is protective, which means Liberty’s chameleonlike qualities actually help preserve her.