The 1986 Restoration of the Statue of Liberty using Stainless Steel.
The Statue of Liberty has stood proudly in New York since 1886, becoming one of the most iconic landmarks in the world. But what many don’t know is that by the 1980s, the statue was in trouble. A hidden enemy, galvanic corrosion, was eating away at its structure, leading to a massive restoration effort in 1986.
The statue’s original framework, designed by Auguste Bartholdi and Gustave Eiffel, was made of puddled iron and had three main components: a central pylon, 1,850 secondary framing beams, and armature bars. These bars connected to the outer copper sheets using about 1,500 U-shaped copper saddles. A double-helix staircase spiralled up through the centre of the pylon.
While Bartholdi and Eiffel tried to prevent galvanic corrosion by electrically isolating the materials, the design and later modifications let rain, coastal salt, and pollution sneak in behind the copper. Over time, moisture from rain and condensation caused serious damage, corroding the iron and even harming the copper.
By 1981, the damage was severe. To fix it, the restoration team replaced the iron armature with Type 316L stainless steel, except for a few bars in the statue’s right foot. This material was chosen because it wouldn’t corrode in the environment and had the same thermal expansion properties as copper. Additionally, a high-strength, corrosion-resistant duplex stainless steel was used to reinforce the secondary framework and support the new armature.
Thanks to these updates, Statue of Liberty was equipped to stand strong for generations to come!
The properties of Stainless Steel, such as resistance to corrosion, is important across our whole range of products like our stainless steel vanity tops and bar sinks. They're not as impressive as that huge stainless steel staircase though... that really is stair-pendous!
images:
Diagram in the backgorund: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. work is in the public domain in the United States.
Statue of Liberty: The person who associated a work has dedicated the work to the public domain.