The Engineering That Built the World s01e02 Liberty Rising Subtitles

00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:08,A 225 -ton symbol of freedom visited by
more than

00:00:08,320 --> 00:00:10,175 million.

00:00:10,360 --> 00:00:16,The Statue of Liberty is so iconic.
People don't think of the metal and the

00:00:16,640 --> 00:00:19,sweat that went into creating it.

00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:27,Her story begins 150 years ago in an
unlikely place with an unknown

00:00:27,660 --> 00:00:32,artist. Hell -bent on creating the
tallest statue of all time.

00:00:32,450 --> 00:00:34,It's something he has to do with his
life.

00:00:35,390 --> 00:00:40,It's a puzzle that takes 20 years to
solve. It was an engineering project,

00:00:40,630 --> 00:00:43,like a building than a work of art.

00:00:44,010 --> 00:00:45,How does she get her shape?

00:00:46,050 --> 00:00:48,Excuse me, Mr. Eiffel?

00:00:49,410 --> 00:00:52,The inside of the Statue of Liberty
looks like the Eiffel Tower.

00:00:53,290 --> 00:00:57,Her signature color. When it was first
built, it looked like a penny.

00:00:58,040 --> 00:01:00,What other secrets does she hold?

00:01:00,560 --> 00:01:04,His face is near identical to the face
of the Statue of Liberty.

00:01:04,640 --> 00:01:06,And how does it nearly end?

00:01:06,980 --> 00:01:07,Stop!

00:01:08,520 --> 00:01:09,In disaster.

00:01:10,120 --> 00:01:15,We need to really understand what kind
of audacity it took for Bartoldi to keep

00:01:15,320 --> 00:01:16,trying to make the statue.

00:01:17,080 --> 00:01:21,This is the surprising story of Liberty
Rising.

00:01:47,720 --> 00:01:48,It's 1865.

00:01:49,680 --> 00:01:55,In the United States, the Civil War has
left 750 ,000 soldiers dead.

00:01:56,700 --> 00:02:02,The conflict really pivots on the
question whether the United States can

00:02:02,200 --> 00:02:06,be a democratic republic and still have
an institution like human bondage.

00:02:07,220 --> 00:02:10,The answer to the question is a
resounding no.

00:02:11,860 --> 00:02:16,Six days after it ends, President
Abraham Lincoln is assassinated.

00:02:18,600 --> 00:02:21,News that reverberates around the world.

00:02:28,240 --> 00:02:34,Especially in France, famous French
author Edouard René de Laboulaye is

00:02:34,080 --> 00:02:38,particularly outspoken about his love of
democracy, donating to United States

00:02:38,920 --> 00:02:43,anti -slavery efforts and singing
America's praises in his books.

00:02:43,660 --> 00:02:48,Laboulaye and his friends were fanboys
of the American experiment.

00:02:48,800 --> 00:02:53,There was nothing more important to him
than individual liberty, and the United

00:02:53,380 --> 00:02:55,States had it. France did not.

00:02:55,600 --> 00:03:00,Seventy -five years after its own
revolution, France is now a

00:03:01,720 --> 00:03:06,The very person they elect as president,
the nephew of the emperor Napoleon,

00:03:06,520 --> 00:03:11,overthrows the republic to establish
himself as the new emperor, calling

00:03:11,240 --> 00:03:13,himself... Napoleon III.

00:03:13,510 --> 00:03:19,Those who believed in the original
values of the French Revolution are

00:03:19,950 --> 00:03:26,thumb of Napoleon III. And they see in
the defeat of the

00:03:26,430 --> 00:03:31,Confederacy the capacity to revive their
values of freedom.

00:03:32,390 --> 00:03:36,Laboulaye has regular dinner parties
where he and his guests plot to

00:03:36,890 --> 00:03:37,French democracy.

00:03:38,890 --> 00:03:41,This time, he's invited an up -and
-coming artist.

00:03:42,310 --> 00:03:43,Here he is.

00:03:44,330 --> 00:03:47,Friends, meet Auguste Bartoldi.

00:03:48,970 --> 00:03:54,Frederic Auguste Bartoldi is a 31 -year
-old sculptor trying to make his mark in

00:03:54,250 --> 00:03:55,the art world.

00:03:55,810 --> 00:04:00,There are times when a dinner really
changes the course of history, and this

00:04:00,210 --> 00:04:02,dinner party was one of those times.

00:04:03,920 --> 00:04:08,There is a whole assembly of great men
there, you know, to talk over all the

00:04:08,840 --> 00:04:13,ideas of the time. And they're thinking,
we need to send something over to the

00:04:13,700 --> 00:04:19,United States that will show how much we
respect Abraham Lincoln and the ending

00:04:19,860 --> 00:04:20,of slavery there.

00:04:21,720 --> 00:04:28,We'll build them a monument, something
that shows we have a bond with the

00:04:28,140 --> 00:04:29,American people.

00:04:30,620 --> 00:04:33,And you're going to build it.

00:04:37,960 --> 00:04:39,Bartoldi is an unlikely choice.

00:04:40,760 --> 00:04:43,So far, he's shown little sign of
greatness.

00:04:48,240 --> 00:04:53,He starts his career in the 1850s,
trying his hand at painting.

00:04:53,780 --> 00:04:56,Bartoldi was a mediocre painter.

00:04:56,640 --> 00:05:00,He was always a visual artist, but
perhaps not the best in class.

00:05:03,690 --> 00:05:08,In 1855, Martoldi's mother uses family
connections to get him a job using a

00:05:08,950 --> 00:05:13,different skill, building the statue of
a French war hero for a government

00:05:13,830 --> 00:05:16,exhibit. But he's in over his head.

00:05:17,170 --> 00:05:21,By the time he's done with this thing,
it's about 25 feet, including the

00:05:21,290 --> 00:05:26,pedestal. It can barely fit out of the
studio with a one -inch clearance

00:05:26,450 --> 00:05:27,the doorway.

00:05:27,370 --> 00:05:31,When it was delivered to the venue,
everyone's like, we...

00:05:31,770 --> 00:05:35,Don't have that big of a door. We have a
problem. We're going to have to leave

00:05:35,630 --> 00:05:36,this at the entrance.

00:05:37,830 --> 00:05:42,Oh, that is the most prominent place at
this exhibition.

00:05:43,130 --> 00:05:48,For Bartoldi, this is the lesson that if
you build something a little bit too

00:05:48,390 --> 00:05:50,big, everyone will notice it.

00:05:54,270 --> 00:05:57,Ten years later, Laboulaye's proposal is
too late.

00:05:58,340 --> 00:06:01,Bartoldi already has another big job in
his sights.

00:06:02,640 --> 00:06:07,Egypt is creating the Suez Canal, the
greatest technological wonder of the

00:06:07,820 --> 00:06:13,The Suez Canal cuts the distance between
Asia and Europe in more than half.

00:06:14,280 --> 00:06:17,Imagine connecting east and west for the
first time in that way.

00:06:18,620 --> 00:06:24,Over 40 years before the Panama Canal,
Bartoldi is pitching the idea of a

00:06:24,040 --> 00:06:26,monumental statue for the waterway's
entrance.

00:06:27,440 --> 00:06:31,This is a time of enormous growth
intellectually and commercially across

00:06:31,980 --> 00:06:37,world, and it is a rediscovery also of
ancient ideas, and that included

00:06:37,540 --> 00:06:43,statues. At the time, the ancient Greek
Colossus of Rhodes is considered the

00:06:43,520 --> 00:06:48,tallest statue in history, at 108 feet,
or about 10 stories.

00:06:48,580 --> 00:06:53,By the 19th century, few structures of
any kind reached that height.

00:06:54,120 --> 00:06:55,Bartholdi is an...

00:06:55,480 --> 00:06:59,Extremely ambitious person, but it's not
for money. He's coming from sort of

00:06:59,720 --> 00:07:03,Mason culture that you didn't have any
kind of afterlife you were going to go

00:07:03,820 --> 00:07:08,to. Therefore, you have a lot of people
who have this idea of creating some

00:07:08,280 --> 00:07:12,wonder, something that will outlast them
and be their gift of immortality.

00:07:13,840 --> 00:07:19,Bartoldi's design shows an ancient
enslaved woman holding a lantern, a nod

00:07:19,400 --> 00:07:21,Egypt's recent abolition of slavery.

00:07:22,060 --> 00:07:27,The design that Bartholdi comes up with
for the Suez Canal statue is a first

00:07:27,360 --> 00:07:32,draft for the Statue of Liberty. There
are many similarities between the two, a

00:07:32,020 --> 00:07:34,female holding a torch, wearing a robe.

00:07:35,040 --> 00:07:41,At 148 feet, more than 13 stories, it
would dwarf the Greek Colossus to be

00:07:41,980 --> 00:07:44,the tallest statue in recorded history.

00:07:50,340 --> 00:07:55,Bartoli takes his unsolicited pitch to
the mastermind of the canal, famous

00:07:55,840 --> 00:07:58,French statesman Ferdinand de Lesseps.

00:08:03,060 --> 00:08:05,It's a terrible idea as far as de
Lesseps is concerned.

00:08:05,620 --> 00:08:11,Why does de Lesseps want Bartoli to come
in and somehow be the cherry on top of

00:08:11,280 --> 00:08:12,his great project?

00:08:13,340 --> 00:08:14,I'm late for a party.

00:08:24,170 --> 00:08:28,He's filled with despair that this is
not really going to happen, and he has

00:08:28,890 --> 00:08:30,go back to the drawing board, literally.

00:08:31,670 --> 00:08:37,This rejection alters the course of
history, putting Bartoldi on the path of

00:08:37,409 --> 00:08:43,project that will use over 50 million
pounds of metal and concrete to create

00:08:43,510 --> 00:08:49,figure that will greet over 175 million
visitors across 130 years and

00:08:49,850 --> 00:08:51,counting.

00:08:55,850 --> 00:08:58,But for now, he's at square one.

00:09:09,310 --> 00:09:16,Bertoldi thinks about the idea that
Laboulaye had once put out there and

00:09:16,130 --> 00:09:19,I'm going to America. I'm going to...