A Note From Bob
The morning after the Fourth
Yesterday the country turned two hundred and fifty, and by now the fireworks have gone quiet. This morning, a quieter tribute. The most recognizable symbol of American liberty was not made in America at all. Lady Liberty was dreamed up, designed, and built in France, a gift from one young republic to another, and she was raised piece by piece in a Paris workshop before she ever crossed the Atlantic. Today's featured quiz tells her story. Grab your coffee.
Trivia Question of the Day
The sculptor Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi gave the Statue of Liberty her face and her form, but he needed an engineer to build the iron skeleton that holds her upright. The Frenchman he hired would, a few years later, raise the most famous tower in Paris. Who was he?
The answer is at the bottom of this email.
Today's Featured Quiz
The Statue of Liberty
Fifteen questions, just a few minutes. From a French sculptor's grand idea to the copper colossus standing watch over New York Harbor, see how well you know the story of Lady Liberty.
The Answer
Gustave Eiffel
Bartholdi turned to Gustave Eiffel, an engineer already celebrated across France for his daring iron bridges. Eiffel designed a central iron pylon with a lighter, flexible framework hung around it, so the statue's thin copper skin could shift in the harbor winds without cracking. The finished figure was raised at his workshop in Paris, then taken apart, packed into more than two hundred crates, and shipped to New York. Only afterward did Eiffel build the wrought-iron tower, opened in 1889, that would carry his name around the world.
On This Day
Before she ever saw New York, the Statue of Liberty towered over the rooftops of Paris, rising above the chimneys in the yard of Eiffel's workshop through 1884. Paris has been surprising the world like that for more than two thousand years, from a small tribe's settlement on an island in the Seine to a capital of art, revolution, and light. Today's companion quiz travels the whole sweep of that story.
Stay
Curious.
Bob
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