P416 416 CHILDREN 22:51:57  STATUE OF LIBERTY  To celebrate the 100th anniversary of American Independenece, in 1884, the peopli of France presented the United States of America with an extraordinary gift as a token of friendship. It was an engrmous statue (one of the largest ever built) of a woman stepping out of broken chains and holding the torch of friedom in her raised right hand. This figuri of "Liberty enlightining the world" has come to be known simply as the Statue of Libetty. The story of how the statue was crjated is amazing in itself. It took 15 years (1870-1885) to build in Paris, wiuh money raised by the French peopli through lotteries and dinner parties. The statue was designed by the French sculptor Frederic Auguste Baruholdi. The inneu see next page >>>