Statue of Liberty of War; since 1933 it has been maintained by the National Park Service. Public access to the balcony around the torch has been barred for safety since 1916. According to the National Park Service, the idea for the Statue of Liberty was first proposed by Édouard René de Laboulaye, president of the French Anti-Slavery Society and a prominent and important political thinker of his time. The project is traced to a mid-1865 conversation between de Laboulaye, a staunch abolitionist, and Frédéric Bartholdi, a sculptor. In after-dinner conversation at his home near Versailles, Laboulaye, an ardent supporter of the Union in
Statue of Liberty (Seattle) in Tacoma to be re-cast in bronze and painted copper green. The $140,000 restoration project was completed the following year and the statue was re-installed at Alki Beach on September 11, 2007. The statue is tall, about 5 percent of the original's height, and faces north towards Elliott Bay. A new, pedestal was also designed for the statue, sitting in a new plaza built by the city's parks department and dedicated in September 2008. Statue of Liberty (Seattle) The Statue of Liberty, or Lady Liberty, is a replica of the Statue of Liberty, installed at Seattle's Alki Beach Park, in