<P> On June 17, 1885, the French steamer Isère, laden with the Statue of Liberty, reached the New York port safely . New Yorkers displayed their new - found enthusiasm for the statue, as the French vessel arrived with the crates holding the disassembled statue on board . Two hundred thousand people lined the docks and hundreds of boats put to sea to welcome the Isère . After five months of daily calls to donate to the statue fund, on August 11, 1885, the World announced that $102,000 had been raised from 120,000 donors, and that 80 percent of the total had been received in sums of less than one dollar . </P> <P> Even with the success of the fund drive, the pedestal was not completed until April 1886 . Immediately thereafter, reassembly of the statue began . Eiffel's iron framework was anchored to steel I - beams within the concrete pedestal and assembled . Once this was done, the sections of skin were carefully attached . Due to the width of the pedestal, it was not possible to erect scaffolding, and workers dangled from ropes while installing the skin sections . Nevertheless, no one died during the construction . Bartholdi had planned to put floodlights on the torch's balcony to illuminate it; a week before the dedication, the Army Corps of Engineers vetoed the proposal, fearing that ships' pilots passing the statue would be blinded . Instead, Bartholdi cut portholes in the torch--which was covered with gold leaf--and placed the lights inside them . A power plant was installed on the island to light the torch and for other electrical needs . After the skin was completed, renowned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, co-designer of New York's Central Park and Brooklyn's Prospect Park, supervised a cleanup of Bedloe's Island in anticipation of the dedication . </P> <P> A ceremony of dedication was held on the afternoon of October 28, 1886 . President Grover Cleveland, the former New York governor, presided over the event . On the morning of the dedication, a parade was held in New York City; estimates of the number of people who watched it ranged from several hundred thousand to a million . President Cleveland headed the procession, then stood in the reviewing stand to see bands and marchers from across America . General Stone was the grand marshal of the parade . The route began at Madison Square, once the venue for the arm, and proceeded to the Battery at the southern tip of Manhattan by way of Fifth Avenue and Broadway, with a slight detour so the parade could pass in front of the World building on Park Row . As the parade passed the New York Stock Exchange, traders threw ticker tape from the windows, beginning the New York tradition of the ticker - tape parade . </P> <P> A nautical parade began at 12: 45 p.m., and President Cleveland embarked on a yacht that took him across the harbor to Bedloe's Island for the dedication . De Lesseps made the first speech, on behalf of the French committee, followed by the chairman of the New York committee, Senator William M. Evarts . A French flag draped across the statue's face was to be lowered to unveil the statue at the close of Evarts's speech, but Bartholdi mistook a pause as the conclusion and let the flag fall prematurely . The ensuing cheers put an end to Evarts's address . President Cleveland spoke next, stating that the statue's "stream of light shall pierce the darkness of ignorance and man's oppression until Liberty enlightens the world". Bartholdi, observed near the dais, was called upon to speak, but he declined . Orator Chauncey M. Depew concluded the speechmaking with a lengthy address . </P>

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