`Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi (1834-1904) & Gustave Eiffel (1832-1923)` Art and engineering combine to create something as big and beautiful as the Statue of Liberty. Because of its size, the Statue of Liberty is highly engineered. In fact, with its skin removed, it is obvious. Under the skin, the Statue of Liberty looks a lot like the engineered skeleton of a skyscraper. And, in fact, this skeleton was created by the same firm that designed the Eiffel Tower. Think about the problems faced by the sculptor/designer, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi (1834-1904), as well as Gustave Eiffel (1832-1923), who assisted in its design, and his structural engineer, Maurice Koechlin (1856-1946). First, he is creating a sculpture 150 feet (45 meters) tall. He wants to be able to build the sculpture in France and mail it to America on a ship. So a giant marble sculpture is out. In marble the uplifted arm would be difficult as well. He decides to make it out of a thin copper skin instead. But there will be 160,000 pounds (72,600 kg) of copper skin when he is done. And the sculpture, once assembled, has to be able to handle hurricane force winds. So inside the sculpture there is a huge metal frame. Four vertical beams a hundred feet (30 meters) tall anchor the sculpture to its pedestal and provide support for the internal staircase. From those beams, a metal truss framework extends out toward the 400 sheets of riveted copper that form the skin. The copper sheets attach to a lattice of custom-bent iron bars that provide rigidity and structure. The curtain-wall architecture of a modern skyscraper like Burj Khalifa manages the building's load in a similar way: the Statue of Liberty actually is a prototype of today's skyscrapers. What about the uplifted arm? It has its own truss and ladder to climb to the torch. The statue was built in France, then disassembled, crated, and shipped to America for reassembly, which took about a year. When it was dedicated in 1886, it stood both as an important work of art and an important work of engineering.