New York's Statue of Liberty was first unveiled to the public on Oct 28, 1885.
AS KERMIT the Frog once said, "it's not easy being green".
But has the Statue of Liberty, one of the world's most iconic landmarks, always been in its iconic bluish-green colour?
Verdict:
FALSE
Not many are aware that the current colour that Lady Liberty wore today isn't the original colour she had when she arrived.
The Statue of Liberty was a gift from France to the United States of America in 1885 as a way of commemorating the fight for independence and their own aspirations towards democracy.
The 46.05m statue that's currently standing proud in Liberty Island, New York City, was built over the course of nine years by shaping sheets of copper no thicker than two or three millimetres on top of an iron skeleton.
This means that when it was first unveiled to the public on Oct 28, 1886 as 'Liberty Enlightening the World', it was copper coloured. The same colour as the United States 'penny' or Malaysia's one-sen coin.
So what happened? Did they paint it over? Well, it all comes down to chemistry.
The Statue of Liberty went from its initial shiny copper colour to dull brown and finally to the blue-green colour that we see today or 'verdigris' as they say in French.
This happened due to about 30 years' worth of oxidation and air pollution. Not just a reaction but a combination of reactions.
Nevertheless, every cloud has a silver lining as not only did this process give the statue a vibrant colour, but it has also served as a natural protective layer against further corrosion.
There were initially news reports in 1906 that discussed the possibility of a new paint job for the statue but it was dismissed a year later, indicating that officials had embraced the statue’s green colouration.
It has since stayed this colour for over a hundred years because all the exposed copper is now oxidised - meaning that she has finally decided on the colour that best suits her skin.
References:
1. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/09/19/the-statue-of-libertys-beguiling-green
2. https://wonderopolis.org/wonder/why-is-the-statue-of-liberty-green
3. https://youtu.be/_ZSLrXtg1-o
