Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Liberty Island’s Statue of Liberty Construction Tour. It sure took a lot of people to put the big lady with the light together.

Now if you step this way you’ll see Edouard Rene de Laboulaye who came up with the idea of the Statue.

"So, it's this lady right? But she's massive and has a pointy hat and she's holding up an ice cream cone."

And this fella is Alexandre Gustave Eiffel who designed her iron skeleton.

"Zut alors! A bit like zee Eiffel Tower but shaped like a giant lady, eh?"

Emma Lazurus was the poet who wrote the lines embedded in the statue’s pedestal

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…”

"What rhymes with Liberty? Bibbity? Flibberty? Sigh. I hope they invent the rhyming dictionary soon."

Joseph Pulitzer, publisher of The New York World, conducted a crusade for the Statue Pedestal Fund.

"I have surmised that a giant crate that once had oranges in it won't do. There'll be a prize in it for you. What no prize? Well, I'll save that idea for later."

And the brilliant Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, the French sculptor, designed the Statue of Liberty with its proud bearing and its world-famous giant squid torch.

What? I said GIANT SQUID TORCH.

"Et for zee piste de la resistance we 'ave zee squeeeeeeid torch."

The ten tentacled symbol of freedom

A passer by is educated about the statue's historic squid torch construction

Phillip Ratner's Liberty Island statues with historic squid

"Oh, squid can you see by the dawn's early light..."

A stirring sight of a one of the most historic mollusc-based monuments in the Big Apple I think you’ll agree.

Thank you for visiting the Liberty Island Statue of Liberty Construction Tour. For the security of all please ensure you take all baggage with you and don’t leave anything behind.

I repeat, ladies and gentlemen, take all trash, personal belongings and stitched squid with world domination plans who may take over the island during the night, with you. Don’t leave anything behind.

"Puny human sushi! Your historic island is mine!"

You all have a nice day now.