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VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I'm SteveEmber.

VOICE TWO:

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And I'm Faith Lapidus. This week,learn about a campaign to let the public back inside one ofAmerica's most famous symbols, the Statue of Liberty.

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VOICE ONE:

Before September eleventh, two-thousand-one, two-million people ayear visited Liberty Island in New York Harbor. Then, terroristhijackers flew airplanes into the World Trade Center buildings threekilometers away. The attacks by al Qaeda on the United States thatday killed more than three-thousand people.

Liberty Island closed immediately. The island reopened inDecember of that year. But not the great landmark. People stillcannot go inside the statue. Attendance at the island was down fivepercent last year.

Officials say the statue must be made more secure. Newcommunication systems are needed in case of fire or other emergency.And more emergency doors to get visitors out safely.

VOICE TWO:

A five-million-dollar campaign is in progress to reopen theStatue of Liberty. To help lead the effort, movie director MartinScorsese [score-ZAY-zay] made a television movie for the HistoryChannel. The movie is called "Lady by the Sea: The Statue ofLiberty."

The goal is to get the public to give at least one-milliondollars to add to improvements already made by the government.

The American Express company paid for the movie, and MisterScorsese gave his time. American Express also has guaranteed atleast three-million dollars to the Statue of Liberty-Ellis IslandFoundation. The Folger's coffee company has promised one-milliondollars.

The foundation cares for Liberty Island and nearby Ellis Island.The nonprofit group works in cooperation with the National ParkService.

Ellis Island served for many years as the main immigration centerfor people who arrived in America. Now parts of it are a museum.Ellis Island was closed after September eleventh. But, like LibertyIsland, it has been open again since December of two-thousand-one.

VOICE ONE:

In his movie, Martin Scorsese explains the spirit of cooperationwith France that brought the Statue of Liberty to the United States."Lady by the Sea" also celebrates the idea that the statue was meantas a way to mark the end of slavery in the American South. TheFrenchman who had the idea for the statue was against slavery. Buttoday, others argue that any relationship to slavery was lost as theproject moved ahead.

In any case, the Statue of Liberty has special meaning for MartinScorsese. He says it had a great effect on his grandparents. Like somany immigrants, they saw it when they first arrived from Italyearly in the last century.

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VOICE TWO:

People like to say the Statue of Liberty is in good condition forsomeone her age. France gave the statue to the United States ineighteen-eighty-four. The full name is "Liberty Enlightening theWorld." Ships that sailed into New York Harbor carried millions ofimmigrants past the statue.

The statue is forty-six meters tall. It is made mostly of copper.The color was reddish-brown, until time and weather turned it green.Liberty's right arm is high in the air and holds a torch, a goldenlight. Her left hand holds a tablet with the date July fourth,seventeen-seventy-six -- the date of the American Declaration ofIndependence.

VOICE ONE:

On the head of the Statue of Liberty is a crown with sevenpoints. Each of these rays is meant to represent the light offreedom as it shines on seven seas and seven continents. A chainthat represents oppression lies broken at her feet. The people ofFrance gave the Statue of Liberty to the United States as a gift tohonor freedom.

The two nations became friends during the American Revolutionagainst Britain. France helped the revolutionary armies defeat thesoldiers of King George the Third. The war officially ended inseventeen-eighty-three. A few years later, the French rebelledagainst their own king.

VOICE TWO:

A French historian and politician named Edouard-Rene Lefebvre deLaboulaye thought of the idea for a statue. He was giving a party inhis home near Versailles in eighteen-sixty-five. This was the yearthe American Civil War ended. Slavery also ended in the UnitedStates.

It was a time when Laboulaye and others were struggling to maketheir own country democratic against the rule of Napoleon the Third.Laboulaye suggested that the French and Americans build a monumenttogether to celebrate freedom.

One of the guests at the party was a young sculptor, FredericAuguste Bartholdi. For years Bartholdi had dreamed of creating avery large statue. By the end of the party he had been invited tomake one for the United States.

VOICE ONE:

In eighteen-seventy-five the French established an organizationto raise money for Bartholdi's creation. Two years later theAmericans established a group to help pay for a pedestal to supportthe statue.

American architect Richard Morris Hunt was chosen to design thepedestal. It would stand forty-seven meters high. In France,Bartholdi designed a small version of his statue. Then he built aseries of larger copies.

Workers created wooden forms covered with plaster for each mainpart. Then they placed three-hundred pieces of copper on the forms.The copper "skin" was less than three centimeters thick.

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VOICE TWO:

Now, in addition to a pedestal, the Statue of Liberty needed astructure that could hold its weight of more than two-hundred tons.Engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel created this new technology. Laterhe would build the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Eiffel and his helpers worked in Paris to produce a strongsupport system for the statue. The design also needed to let thestatue move a little in strong winds.

France had hoped to give the statue to the United States on Julyfourth, eighteen-seventy-six. That was the one-hundredth anniversaryof the signing of the Declaration of Independence. But technicalproblems and lack of money delayed the project by eight years.

VOICE ONE:

At last France presented the statue to the United States. Thecelebration took place in Paris on July fourth,eighteen-eighty-four. Americans started to build the pedestal thatsame year. But they had to stop. People had not given enough moneyto finish it.

A New York newspaper urged Americans to give more money for thepedestal. People gave one-hundred-thousand dollars more.

Now the huge statue had a pedestal to stand on. In France, thestatue was taken apart for shipping to the United States. It arrivedin two-hundred-fourteen wooden boxes.

VOICE TWO:

On October twenty-eighth, eighteen-eighty-six, President GroverCleveland officially accepted Liberty Enlightening the World. Hesaid: "We will not forget that Liberty has here made her home."

Over the years Americans shortened the name of the statue. Theycalled it the Statue of Liberty, or Miss Liberty.

VOICE ONE:

Twelve-million immigrants passed the Statue of Liberty by shipbetween eighteen-ninety-two and nineteen twenty-four. By then, EllisIsland had stopped much of its operations. The great wave ofEuropean immigrants was mostly over.

But millions of visitors kept coming to see the Statue ofLiberty. By the nineteen-eighties, the statue badly needed repairs.Again people on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean raised money.Fireworks lit the sky at the celebration for the restored Statue ofLiberty on July fourth, nineteen-eighty-six.

VOICE TWO:

Even if the current campaign gathers enough money, there is stillanother step before the Statue of Liberty can reopen. The NationalPark Service must get permission within the government.

Liberty Island is open to visitors. But many people look forwardto the day when they can again visit the museum inside the pedestal.Some want to climb the three-hundred-fifty-four steps to the crown.Others want to ride up to observation areas in an elevator to lookat New York Harbor.

They say a symbol of freedom that has welcomed so many newcomersto America should once again welcome visitors inside.

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VOICE ONE:

Jerilyn Watson wrote our program, and Caty Weaver produced it.I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another reportabout life in the United States on the VOA Special English program,THIS IS AMERICA.