When the Statue of Liberty arrived in New York City in 1885, it was not fully assembled. It arrived from Paris in 350 pieces (packed into 214 crates), and was delivered with an instruction manual on how to put it all back together. The Statue of Liberty reportedly required 300 different hammers, more types of hammers than I even knew existed, to build.

The Statue of Liberty arrived at its permanent home on Bedloe’s Island in New York Harbor on June 19, 1885, aboard the French frigate Isere. A gift of friendship from the people of France to the people of the United States, the 151-foot-tall statue was created to commemorate the centennial of the American Declaration of Independence.