All language subtitles for The Engineering That Built the World s01e02 Liberty Rising

A 225 -ton symbol of freedom visited by
more than

175 million.

The Statue of Liberty is so iconic.
People don't think of the metal and the

sweat that went into creating it.

Her story begins 150 years ago in an
unlikely place with an unknown

artist. Hell -bent on creating the
tallest statue of all time.

It's something he has to do with his
life.

It's a puzzle that takes 20 years to
solve. It was an engineering project,

like a building than a work of art.

How does she get her shape?

Excuse me, Mr. Eiffel?

The inside of the Statue of Liberty
looks like the Eiffel Tower.

Her signature color. When it was first
built, it looked like a penny.

What other secrets does she hold?

His face is near identical to the face
of the Statue of Liberty.

And how does it nearly end?

Stop!

In disaster.

We need to really understand what kind
of audacity it took for Bartoldi to keep

trying to make the statue.

This is the surprising story of Liberty
Rising.

It's 1865.

In the United States, the Civil War has
left 750 ,000 soldiers dead.

The conflict really pivots on the
question whether the United States can

be a democratic republic and still have
an institution like human bondage.

The answer to the question is a
resounding no.

Six days after it ends, President
Abraham Lincoln is assassinated.

News that reverberates around the world.

Especially in France, famous French
author Edouard René de Laboulaye is

particularly outspoken about his love of
democracy, donating to United States

anti -slavery efforts and singing
America's praises in his books.

Laboulaye and his friends were fanboys
of the American experiment.

There was nothing more important to him
than individual liberty, and the United

States had it. France did not.

Seventy -five years after its own
revolution, France is now a

The very person they elect as president,
the nephew of the emperor Napoleon,

overthrows the republic to establish
himself as the new emperor, calling

himself... Napoleon III.

Those who believed in the original
values of the French Revolution are

thumb of Napoleon III. And they see in
the defeat of the

Confederacy the capacity to revive their
values of freedom.

Laboulaye has regular dinner parties
where he and his guests plot to

French democracy.

This time, he's invited an up -and
-coming artist.

Here he is.

Friends, meet Auguste Bartoldi.

Frederic Auguste Bartoldi is a 31 -year
-old sculptor trying to make his mark in

the art world.

There are times when a dinner really
changes the course of history, and this

dinner party was one of those times.

There is a whole assembly of great men
there, you know, to talk over all the

ideas of the time. And they're thinking,
we need to send something over to the

United States that will show how much we
respect Abraham Lincoln and the ending

of slavery there.

We'll build them a monument, something
that shows we have a bond with the

American people.

And you're going to build it.

Bartoldi is an unlikely choice.

So far, he's shown little sign of
greatness.

He starts his career in the 1850s,
trying his hand at painting.

Bartoldi was a mediocre painter.

He was always a visual artist, but
perhaps not the best in class.

In 1855, Martoldi's mother uses family
connections to get him a job using a

different skill, building the statue of
a French war hero for a government

exhibit. But he's in over his head.

By the time he's done with this thing,
it's about 25 feet, including the

pedestal. It can barely fit out of the
studio with a one -inch clearance

the doorway.

When it was delivered to the venue,
everyone's like, we...

Don't have that big of a door. We have a
problem. We're going to have to leave

this at the entrance.

Oh, that is the most prominent place at
this exhibition.

For Bartoldi, this is the lesson that if
you build something a little bit too

big, everyone will notice it.

Ten years later, Laboulaye's proposal is
too late.

Bartoldi already has another big job in
his sights.

Egypt is creating the Suez Canal, the
greatest technological wonder of the

The Suez Canal cuts the distance between
Asia and Europe in more than half.

Imagine connecting east and west for the
first time in that way.

Over 40 years before the Panama Canal,
Bartoldi is pitching the idea of a

monumental statue for the waterway's
entrance.

This is a time of enormous growth
intellectually and commercially across

world, and it is a rediscovery also of
ancient ideas, and that included

statues. At the time, the ancient Greek
Colossus of Rhodes is considered the

tallest statue in history, at 108 feet,
or about 10 stories.

By the 19th century, few structures of
any kind reached that height.

Bartholdi is an...

Extremely ambitious person, but it's not
for money. He's coming from sort of

Mason culture that you didn't have any
kind of afterlife you were going to go

to. Therefore, you have a lot of people
who have this idea of creating some

wonder, something that will outlast them
and be their gift of immortality.

Bartoldi's design shows an ancient
enslaved woman holding a lantern, a nod

Egypt's recent abolition of slavery.

The design that Bartholdi comes up with
for the Suez Canal statue is a first

draft for the Statue of Liberty. There
are many similarities between the two, a

female holding a torch, wearing a robe.

At 148 feet, more than 13 stories, it
would dwarf the Greek Colossus to be

the tallest statue in recorded history.

Bartoli takes his unsolicited pitch to
the mastermind of the canal, famous

French statesman Ferdinand de Lesseps.

It's a terrible idea as far as de
Lesseps is concerned.

Why does de Lesseps want Bartoli to come
in and somehow be the cherry on top of

his great project?

I'm late for a party.

He's filled with despair that this is
not really going to happen, and he has

go back to the drawing board, literally.

This rejection alters the course of
history, putting Bartoldi on the path of

project that will use over 50 million
pounds of metal and concrete to create

figure that will greet over 175 million
visitors across 130 years and

counting.

But for now, he's at square one.

Bertoldi thinks about the idea that
Laboulaye had once put out there and

I'm going to America. I'm going to make
this happen.

In June of 1871, Bartoli sets out for
the United States on the trip that will

change his life.

Bartoli doesn't have a plan.

He doesn't have the money to do this. He
doesn't even know where the ultimate

location is going to be.

And he doesn't care.

He just wants to put this marker down on
the planet and leave it there for all

time.

In 1871, French artist Frédéric -Auguste
Bartholdi arrives in New York City with

no money or design to pitch his idea of
building the world's tallest statue.

He had never visited the country. He
didn't know what it looked like. He

know where to place a statue of this
size.

But before he even steps off the boat,
Bartholdi spots the ideal location.

Today, we know it as Liberty Island.

But in 1871, it's called Bedloe's
Island, a nondescript place New Yorkers

largely ignore.

It was a small island that held Fort
Wood. It was a military fort that was no

longer in use, so it was abandoned.

Bedloe's Island is situated in such a
place that as you come into New York

Harbor, it's very prominent.

To Bartoldi.

It's the perfect stage for his statue, a
gift from France to the U .S.

But now he needs to convince the right
people.

The only letters of introduction that he
has are from Laboulaye and people that

he knew from the abolitionist struggle.
So the idea that these connections could

ultimately lead to the approval of the
statue, it almost seems preposterous.

But after just a few weeks, Edouard de
Laboulaye's contacts lead him to a

beach cottage.

Mr. President, thank you for seeing me.

It's the summer home of President
Ulysses S. Grant, two years into his

term. You know, one of the striking
things when you look back at that part

the 19th century was how almost
ridiculously accessible presidents could

could find the president of the United
States out and about walking the city.

That would never happen today.

Bartoldi asks permission to place his 13
-story monument on Bedloe's Island and

shows the Suez Canal design as a sample
of his work.

There are dreamers, and then there's
Bartoldi.

No real idea of how it's going to be
paid for.

Bartoldi impulsively makes a guarantee.

The French have the money to build the
statue.

And he actually gets a commitment from
the President of the United States, no

less. President Grant said, you provide
the statue and I will see if Congress

will give you that island.

Bartoldi just assumes, hey, the
President of the United States has said

Clearly, I got it made in the shade,
right?

I think delusion was the key ingredient
of this entire project. Delusion and a

stubbornness of will.

Back in France, Bartoli struggles with
no money and no fresh design.

So he reworks the Suez idea.

The Suez Canal statue is the prototype
of the Statue of Liberty.

I mean, there's no question.

But the veiled headdress isn't right for
his new theme.

Bartoldi needs a different direction.

There's a depiction of France with a
diadem crown, and that sticks with him.

You find it in his archives that he has
a photograph of that. It's a classical

form that shows this kind of rays of
light.

Bartoldi calls his creation Liberty
Enlightening the World.

And amazingly, he decides to go even
bigger. He puts her on a pedestal,

the statue over 300 feet in total,
nearly three times as tall as the

Rhodes.

But Bartoldi still has a major money
problem.

With the added pedestal, the statue is
expected to cost well over $10 million

today's dollars.

So Bartoldi calls in Edouard de
Laboulaye and Ferdinand de Letheps for

The plan is to split the financing.

France covers the statue, and America
pays for the pedestal.

And the Americans agreed to that.

Not exactly.

But we've got a commitment from France.

Yes. if we can pay for it.

The Statue of Liberty would never be
publicly funded.

While everyone was enamored with the
idea, no one wanted to pay for it. The

Statue of Liberty is not practical and
it is not functional.

Other projects were meant for the
expansion of the modern world, for

of the economy and commerce. And the
Statue of Liberty served no other

than... To be a statue.

The group launches a public fundraising
campaign in France.

But in the next two years, they can only
raise a quarter of the statue's

estimated cost.

And they're at another crossroads.

Until Bartoldi sees an opportunity
across the ocean.

In one year, the U .S. will hold its
first World's Fair in Philadelphia,

100 years as a nation.

Millions will attend this centennial
exposition, and Bartoldi devises a

way to harness it.

So Bartoldi needed proof of concept,
right? If he's going to convince the

Americans to get involved and to build
this pedestal, he's going to actually

need to build a little bit of the Statue
of Liberty.

You can't just build part of the statue.

People can't imagine the scale of what
we're planning.

They need to see our vision.

Or part of it.

What if we don't raise the rest of the
money?

We won't if we don't do this.

What part of the statue do you want to
build?

It's a risky strategy.

If the full statue is never finished,
the money they've raised is lost.

and there's no turning back.

You heard the man.

What part?

It's 1875.

Frederic Auguste Bartholdi is using what
little money his French partners have

collected to build part of the Statue of
Liberty, a desperate attempt to

demonstrate its potential at the United
States' centennial celebration.

only five months away.

This would be the perfect time to
showcase what his vision for the statue

probably get a lot more people behind it
and their pocketbooks.

He's decided to construct the hand
holding the torch.

I mean, it's the liberty enlightening
the world, and so to have the torch says

it all. It's also beautiful, and it's
also dramatic.

Bartoldi will hammer copper into the
shapes of the flames.

He plans to gild them with gold.

and illuminate them with floodlights.

But he has an even bigger thrill in
mind.

He was planning to use every fundraising
apparatus that he could, and the way to

do that would be to sell tickets and let
them go up into the torch and walk

around the flame.

Patrons will climb a 40 -foot ladder the
width of a fire escape to a balcony

surrounding the flame.

But to build just part of the statue to
scale,

Bartoldi must figure out how to
construct the whole thing.

This project was something unlike any
previous sculpture.

You couldn't just cast it out of bronze.
You couldn't carve it out of a single

block of marble.

It had to be constructed. It was an
engineering project, more like a

than a work of art.

You need someone who is more or less an
architect in order to make it stand up,

not necessarily an artist like
Bartholdi.

Good afternoon, Professor.

August Bartholdi.

I have been reading about your statue,
which is why I'm here.

Eugene Viollet -Leduc is a former mentor
of Bartholdi, and this is the guy who

knows his math.

He was charged with creating much of the
statuary in Notre Dame.

He creates the gargoyles.

It will be impossible to assemble it as
one solid piece.

If you'll only look at the plans.

Show me.

The statue was tall, about 13 stories.

and thin.

At the time, the only structures built
that high, like some churches, have a

much wider base.

Bartoldi's Colossus will have to be on
the cutting edge of a new construction

technique. A traditional building, you
build the walls, and the walls hold up

the structure.

The Statue of Liberty, in effect, one of
the first examples of what, in

architecture, they call a curtain wall.

You build a strong frame first, and then
you hang the exterior wall from it. The

wall doesn't hold up the building. The
building holds up the wall.

Biolay -Leduc needs to figure out
materials for the inner frame and

exterior.

And he chooses what he knows, a wood
frame for the inside of the statue,

with a layer of plaster, and for the
exterior skin, copper.

It's the most lightweight plentiful
metal available, and a striking color,

least at first.

But when it rusts, and its color of rust
is called patina, it has that greenish

color, and that's just copper oxide.

This chemical process takes decades to
complete.

So when it was first built, they called
it the Copper Lady. You know, it looked

like a penny.

Violet Leduc has used copper and wood in
statues less than 30 feet tall.

But this is five times that, requiring 4
,000 square feet and 31 tons of

hammered copper pushed to its absolute
limit.

I think this is crazy when you pause and
think about it. You go out to that

harbor and look at it. That copper
statue is about the thickness of maybe

pennies put together.

That's it.

The thickness of the copper in the
Statue of Liberty is as thick as it

be. If it's any thicker, it would add an
immense amount of weight.

But for the statue's engineers, the
question is still, will the whole

be strong enough?

It has to face enormous strain and
stress of weather and wind.

Bartoldi also has a design issue.

What will liberty hold in her left hand?
If we look at early models of the

Statue of Liberty, Lady Liberty is
actually clutching broken chains in her

It's inspired by the abolition of the
formerly enslaved.

But Bartoli realizes that as the nation
is moving further and further away from

the Civil War, The tone, the mood has
shifted in the United States. He decides

instead to pick up on the centennial.
And he has inscribed in the book that

Liberty is holding, July 4th, 1776.

Bartoli doesn't abandon the chains idea.
He places them at Liberty's feet.

But it's a detail only visible from
above.

If it had maintained its original
meaning of abolition, it would become a

reminder of unfinished projects and
ambitions that we still struggle with

this day.

By March 1876, with the U .S. Centennial
Exposition two months away,

The wooden plaster of Liberty's 13 -foot
hand is done.

The next step is a move to where they
will apply the final copper skin.

Ready?

Wait.

Stop! Stop!

It's ruined.

And is useless.

This is not just an inconvenience. It is
a disaster.

Stop!

It's March 1876, and the first piece
built for the Statue of Liberty...

The hand that will bear the torch is
ruined.

There's no time to rebuild it by the
opening of the Centennial World's Fair

Philadelphia, just weeks away.

They still needed funding, and this was
a way to focus light on their project.

And if they didn't make this target,
most likely the project would be dead.

But there is one fallback. The Expo
lasts six months.

If they start to rebuild now, they can
race to try to make its final month.

As Bartoldi's men get back to work,
around 10 million visitors attend the

American innovation takes center stage.

With the debut of Alexander Graham
Bell's telephone, the Remington

Even Heinz ketchup.

The Industrial Revolution is finally
allowing them to, if you will, maximize

incredible wealth and resources of their
country. They are an entire continent

full of possibility.

In October 1876, with just a few weeks
left in the exposition, Bartoldi's team

achieves a miracle.

The hand and torch of Lady Liberty make
their debut in Philadelphia.

Liberty enlightening the world. This is
just one section of a much larger... Can

I climb it?

Of course.

50 cents.

50 cents apiece, which is about $15
today.

The crowds react to Bartoli's creation
better than he could have hoped.

Clever move.

As you exited, where did you come out?
Through the gift shop, where they would

sell you a photographic print, a
souvenir of where you've been.

He also brilliantly had little
miniatures, little depictions.

So yes, in fact, he invented the
souvenir before the actual thing.

Not only does Bartoldi get an infusion
of cash to keep building the statue in

France.

an American committee forms to fund the
pedestal. The Americans are going to

cover the cost of the pedestal, and the
French will cover the cost of the statue

itself. After the centennial, the hand
and torch go on display at New York's

Madison Square Park to keep the project
in the public eye and hopefully

donations flowing.

For the first time, Bartoldi's dream
feels like a possibility.

Bartoldi now has enough money to build
Lady Liberty's head, and he must

the exact shape and contour of the
statue's most important feature.

There's this whole debate about who is
the face of the statue, and there is a

kind of romance to say that it is the
face of his mother. But if you actually

look at the images of his mother's face
at the time, they don't resemble the

statue at all.

And when it was brought up to him, he
didn't say, yes, that is my mother's

The statue's face could be modeled after
another Bartoldi relative.

Bartoldi's brother, whom he loves
dearly, is in an asylum because of

he's having with his mental health.

Bartoldi talked about wanting to do a
liberty that seemed troubled or, you

understood the weight of what they were
carrying.

In his files, there's a picture that he
took of his brother Charles, and if you

study the face, the face is near
identical to the face of the Statue of

Bartoldi sells tickets to watch the
statue build in progress.

When the face is complete, he displays
the head at the 1878 World's Fair in

Paris.

And Edouard de Laboulaye makes one final
push to send their fundraising over the

top. The real crucial thing is he gets
the French government to actually sign

off on a lottery. That's where things
really move.

Nearly $5 million in today's dollars is
raised in just months, finally enough to

build the full statue.

But in September 1879, the project hits
a devastating setback.

When Bartoldi's master engineer, Viole
Le Duc, dies of a cerebral hemorrhage.

He's left without an engineer at this
critical time when he has to erect the

largest statue in the world.

Not only is he a former mentor, a
friend, he also knows how to run a big

Without this expertise, the statue may
not happen.

Now, Bartoldi needs another savior.

Excuse me, Mr. Eiffel?

It's 1881.

The Statue of Liberty's engineer has
died suddenly, shutting down the project

for months.

Frederic Auguste Bartholdi may have
found a replacement.

His name is Gustave Eiffel. Most people
think of Gustave.

And they, of course, jumped to the
Eiffel Tower.

That's not going to happen until 1889.

He's known for building bridges,
arguably the best bridge builder in all

Europe.

But the engineer has never built
anything like this.

And he's already faced with a huge
problem.

Eugene Viollet -Leduc's inner wooden
structure.

Viollet -Leduc's untimely death was, of
course, heartbreaking, but it also might

have... saved the Statue of Liberty
because it's not at all clear that his

of building the frame out of wood would
have really worked.

The frame will have to hold Liberty up
amid brutal conditions.

So the Statue of Liberty with its arm
out and wearing a toga, for lack of a

better term, a lot of air can push on
this thing.

This giant copper structure is going to
act like a sail in the wind.

Eventually the whole thing is going to
come toppling over.

Eiffel must figure out how to make sure
that never happens.

Meanwhile, back in the U .S., the
American committee has raised enough

begin construction on the huge statue
pedestal.

Charles P. Stone was the engineer chosen
to create the pedestal on the United

States side.

As Stone prepares to construct the
pedestal inside the walls of Fort Wood,

A system of underground bunkers presents
a huge challenge.

They discovered, to their dismay, it's
meant to stand firm against

artillery, and we are going to have a
giant engineering challenge to get

this level of reinforcement just to
build our own structure here.

How far down does it go?

Doesn't say.

Well, this is the spot we'll have to
make do.

For a Statue of Liberty's size, it will
require a concrete pour of 54 million

pounds, the largest ever attempted to
this point.

In France, Gustave Eiffel finds the
solution to building a stronger inner

in an unlikely structure.

Eiffel was making his name.

building iron truss bridges.

The iron truss bridge was a new
technology.

Bridges are not statues unless you think
about what the bridges do.

They undergo enormous strain.

They are pretty large.

If you took a bridge and turned it on
its edge, then you might have a tower.

Eiffel is on the cusp of a
groundbreaking innovation that will have

far beyond the Statue of Liberty.

In the next decade, for the first time,
buildings begin to rise past 10 stories

and far beyond.

He comes up with a strategy which
revolutionized basically the way we

which is make an iron scaffolding, and
then the outer cladding is just purely

creped over that structure.

The approach will lead to a new class of
building that will dominate the

following century, the skyscraper.

It's also the strategy he will use to
build a 1 ,000 -foot iconic structure,

Eiffel Tower.

But it all starts with liberty.

If you don't know what the inside of the
Statue of Liberty looks like, it looks

like the Eiffel Tower.

The plan is to build her completely to
prove she's structurally sound, then

disassemble her to be shipped to
America.

Over 50 craftsmen, using some 90 ,000
individual measurements, begin to piece

Liberty together until she's too big to
fit inside.

Picture an orange -red Lady Liberty,
because she's yet to have oxidized and

turned green, just rising up.

I imagine that there were more than a
few people.

who walked down the street and, like,
rubbed their eyes a little bit because

they saw this gigantic woman standing in
the street. It's almost like a Godzilla

movie.

By November 1884, nearly a decade after
Bartoldi started building the Hand and

Torch, the full Statue of Liberty is
finally standing.

but she won't reach her final home
without confronting the same problem

plagued her from the start.

It is without a doubt the most fraught
and difficult aspect of making the

of Liberty happen.

Tell the man to stop working.

The U .S. team building the pedestal for
the Statue of Liberty led by engineer

Charles P. Stone has hit major cost
overruns, leaving them $100 ,000 short.

Stone and his efforts had to stop.

Construction halted because the
Americans didn't have the money.

And Stone is running out of time.

Because in Paris, the Statue of Liberty
is being disassembled into more than 350

pieces, packed in crates ranging from
150 pounds to four tons.

They'll travel in a special 70 -car
freight train to a ship bound for New

Those are things that people don't
normally think of.

The engineering of it goes all the way
down to, how is it going to travel?

The 225 tons of parts will take 17 days
to pack in the ship's cargo hold,

carefully placed not to shift in the
ocean waves.

But they might arrive with no pedestal
to stand on.

The press senses a juicy story.

So, I hear you're out of money.

We're just a little behind schedule.
Nothing serious.

So... Joseph Pulitzer is a newspaper
owner who has mastered the art of

people sensationalized stories that
excite people's passions, for better and

worse. Most Americans know the name
Joseph Pulitzer through the Pulitzer

which is one of the highest honors given
to print journalists, which is a bit

ironic. Given the sort of journalism
that Pulitzer himself practiced, no

headline was too tawdry or salacious.

Listen, Mr. Pulitzer, I appreciate your
interest, but it's nothing we want to

publicize.

You misunderstand me, Mr. Stone.

I want to help.

When Joseph Pulitzer is in Paris, he
sees the statue actually as it is coming

together, and he's inspired by that.

Pulitzer launches an all -out
fundraising campaign in his newspapers

twist. He said, people of America, send
in your dollars or your pennies even to

build this pedestal and I, in return,
will print your name in the newspaper.

You'll be famous.

It was really America's first
crowdsourcing Kickstarter campaign.

Pulitzer's campaign raises $102 ,000 in
just a few months.

Nearly 3 million today.

Stone's men are soon working round the
clock.

Come on!

You can do this!

But it's not fast enough.

200 crates carrying Liberty arrive on
Bedloe's Island and sit there.

This is like leaving a jigsaw puzzle out
in the rain and trying to put it

together later. The parts have
misshapen, have been warped due to

the environment.

The boxes weren't labeled really well.
The worst sort of Ikea bookshelf you can

imagine. For months, Stone's men
struggled to make sense of weathered

confusing directions, all in French.

With a lot of Americans trying to
interpret this system.

There were some panels left over, and
they realized later it was that they had

put the arm on slightly wrong, so it was
unstable from almost the beginning, and

it was because of a couple of missing
copper panels.

The original arm will later be found to
have structural issues.

The government closes off the 40 -foot
climb to the torch, and it remains

today.

Back in France, Bartholdi hears horror
stories about the assembly of his statue

and rushes to New York.

If anything's wrong, we'll fix it.

If things are as bad as they say, I'll
take my name off liberty.

Oh, my God.

Auguste.

On October 28, 1886, the city of New
York holds an official inauguration

celebration for the Statue of Liberty.

Lady Liberty is like no statue the world
has ever known.

It's the tallest structure of any kind
in New York.

Visible from 25 miles away.

Her shoe size, if she needed one.

would be 879.

And it was the biggest event that the
city of New York had ever seen.

The parade was endless, bands and
carriages.

Throngs of spectators board ferries to
Bedloe's Island for the unveiling of

Liberty Enlightening the World.

The press is already referring to it as
the Statue of Liberty, but many also

call it the Bartoli Statue.

It's like the work of the old Egyptian.

I hope it lasts as long.

Frederick Auguste Bartholdi will never
again produce anything approaching the

scale of the Statue of Liberty.

But with it, his legacy is secure.

Really what we have is one person, this
one artist who had this vision, and no

matter how many terrible things
happened, he insisted on getting it

I really don't think Bartoldi could have
foreseen how the Statue of Liberty

would affect people immigrating to the
United States.

The poem, The New Colossus, with that
iconic phrase, give me your tired, your

poor, that poem doesn't get affixed to
the base of the pedestal until

1903.

But for so many people, for generations,
the first they glimpsed of America, of

course, would have been arriving by sea.

And that initial welcome, that very
first thing that sent a message about

kind of place you could risk everything
to make as your home, would have been

this extraordinary statue.

So the Statue of Liberty has become the
emblem of American identity.

And it's not just Americans. The idea of
liberty and democracy and the light of

the world has transcended our national
borders. It's become something more.

become human. It's become the idea, the
perfect version of human conduct.