The Absurd True Story of the Statue of Liberty

When hundreds of massive timber crates arrived in New York Harbor in 1885, nobody had any idea how to assemble the colossal metal jigsaw puzzle inside. The American government flatly refused to spend a single dime of taxpayer money, the crates sat rotting in the mud for months, and the entire project became a national laughingstock. So how did a hollow metal lady—with copper skin as thin as two small coins pressed together—survive Atlantic storms to become the world's most recognized symbol of freedom? Why would the statue have collapsed instantly without Gustave Eiffel's secret flexible iron spine? How did Joseph Pulitzer's brilliant penny campaign rescue the pedestal from total abandonment? Why did she gleam like a freshly minted reddish penny for years before turning seafoam green? How did a disastrous attempt to use her as an official federal lighthouse almost wreck incoming ships? How did an elitist diplomatic gift get completely hijacked by millions of desperate immigrants entering Ellis Island?