Niamh Shackleton
When you think of New York, your mind undeniably goes to one of the world's most iconic statues - the Statue of Liberty. But there's a little-known fact about the 137-year-old attraction.
The Statue of Liberty was erected in 1886 on Liberty Island in New York Harbour after it was gifted to the city from France.
It's since become a staple of New York and millions of people visit it each year. In 2022 alone, 3.4 million tourists are thought to have gone to see it for themselves.
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While the Statue of Liberty is known for its bold, green coloring, some would be surprised to know that it wasn't always that color - instead, it's supposed to be copper.
But how on earth did it end up green? Oxidization, my friends.
By 1906, the once-copper-colored piece of art had turned totally green as a result of the oxidization covering it with a green patina.
The patina is a thin layer that protects the original copper underneath.
In light of years of oxidization turning it a completely different color, some Americans are calling for the Statue of Liberty to be cleaned.
Blogger Scott Alexander suggested it on his platform Astral Codez Ten as part of his tongue-in-cheek campaign for US president, and it's since been hailed as an 'awesome' idea.
"The Statue of Liberty is made of copper, and was originally a shiny orange-gold color. Over the years, it has tarnished to its current faded-green," he wrote.
"This is a little too on the nose as a metaphor for American society. As part of a general agenda of restoring liberty nationwide, I would order the Statue of Liberty cleaned until it is back to its original shining-gold state, and restored yearly thereafter."
Sharing a snippet of the post on X, formerly known as Twitter, one person penned: "This is unironically an awesome idea."
"They have to make this happen," wrote another, as a third added: "That would be such a marvelous sight."
Meanwhile, others admitted that they thought the statue had always been green.
"As a Canadian, I definitely thought it was just made of green stone," someone said.
Another added: "I thought the current green color was its original color lmao."
While it would look undeniably beautiful if restored to its original copper, some X users have noted that patina protects the statue.
One person pointed out: "That's the point of copper statues, roofs, etc. They're supposed oxidize. The patina protects the copper from deterioration. This is a bad idea."
The Statue of Liberty has previously been restored around its 100th anniversary and while it had some work done such as holes being repaired and the flame and upper portion of the torch being replaced, it was never fully restored to its original color.
And even if it was, the process of oxidization would begin again.