The Statue of Liberty's Skin Is as Thin as Two Pennies

The Statue of Liberty looks as solid as a mountain. Its surface is closer to a shell. The U.S. National Park Service lists the thickness of the statue’s copper sheeting as 3/32 of an inch, the thickness of two pennies placed together. There is a great deal of that thin metal, with the copper weighing 176,000 pounds. The statue is not rigid, either. According to the Park Service, it can sway up to 3 inches in the wind, and the torch up to 6 inches. The same list of statistics holds other details that are easy to miss from the ground. Twenty-five windows and seven rays make up the crown. The tablet reads July 4, 1776, in Roman numerals. Chains and a broken shackle lie at the statue’s feet, where they cannot be seen from below.