Statue of Liberty 1889, there were 38 U.S. states), although this was not done. Above that, a balcony was placed on each side, framed by pillars. Bartholdi placed an observation platform near the top of the pedestal, above which the statue itself rises. According to author Louis Auchincloss, the pedestal "craggily evokes the power of an ancient Europe over which rises the dominating figure of the Statue of Liberty". The committee hired former army General Charles Pomeroy Stone to oversee the construction work. Construction on the foundation began in 1883, and the pedestal's cornerstone was laid in 1884. In Hunt's original conception, the
Replicas of the Statue of Liberty This statue was given in 1889 to France by U.S. citizens living in Paris to celebrate the French Revolution three years after the main statue in New York was inaugurated. In 1937, the statue was turned from looking east to looking west straight to the direction of the New York's statue. The statue is near the Grenelle Bridge on the Île aux Cygnes, a man-made island in the Seine (). It is high and weighs 14 tons. Inaugurated on July 4, 1889, it looks southwest, downriver along the Seine. Its tablet bears two dates: "IV JUILLET 1776" (July 4, 1776: