STATUE OF LIBERTY

the famous US statue on Liberty Island in New York harbour. It is a woman holding the torch (= burning light) of liberty (= freedom), and its official name is the ‘Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World’. It has become a symbol of freedom and was the first American sight seen by many people who went to the US for a better life. It was designed by Frederic Auguste Bartoldie and given to the US people by France in 1884. The poem by Emma Lazarus on the base of the statue includes the lines: ‘Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.’ The statue was made a World Heritage Site in 1984.