How Long Did It Take to Build the Statue of Liberty?

By Staff WriterLast Updated April 16, 2020

The Statue of Liberty took eight years to build. It was constructed in stages between 1876 and 1884 by a team of French craftsmen under the direction of sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, but it was not displayed until 1886.

Bartholdi began designing the statue in France in 1870. Construction of the arm and torch began and was finished in 1876. The head and shoulders were completed in 1878. From 1881 to 1884, the rest was finished and assembled in Paris and then shipped to America. The statue arrived on June 17, 1885, but assembly had to wait until the pedestal was finished. That construction was completed in 1886, and the statue was revealed on Oct. 28, 1886 to a crowd of one million people.