<P> Joseph Pulitzer, publisher of the New York World, a New York newspaper, announced a drive to raise $100,000--the equivalent of $2.3 million today . Pulitzer pledged to print the name of every contributor, no matter how small the amount given . The drive captured the imagination of New Yorkers, especially when Pulitzer began publishing the notes he received from contributors . "A young girl alone in the world" donated "60 cents, the result of self denial ." One donor gave "five cents as a poor office boy's mite toward the Pedestal Fund ." A group of children sent a dollar as "the money we saved to go to the circus with ." Another dollar was given by a "lonely and very aged woman ." Residents of a home for alcoholics in New York's rival city of Brooklyn--the cities would not merge until 1898--donated $15; other drinkers helped out through donation boxes in bars and saloons . A kindergarten class in Davenport, Iowa, mailed the World a gift of $1.35 . As the donations flooded in, the committee resumed work on the pedestal . </P> <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>

What did the us give france in return for the statue of liberty