WI United States refuses to accept Statue of Liberty

IOTL, there was significant opposition among US politicians to accepting the Statue from France. Nationalism, isolationism, and a variety of other factors motivated this sentiment, not to mention the fact that the US government was unwilling to foot the cost of the Statue's pedestal. So for whatever reason, the POD involves the US formally rejecting France's offer of the Statue of Liberty.

What would happen to the Statue?
 
I think the Statue was touring either France or the US at the time (in various states of disassembly), in a desperate bid to raise funds for the pedestal. IOTL they managed to scrape up enough through private donations, but I imagine they were cutting it pretty close.
 
I think the Statue was touring either France or the US at the time (in various states of disassembly), in a desperate bid to raise funds for the pedestal. IOTL they managed to scrape up enough through private donations, but I imagine they were cutting it pretty close.

I suspect these pieces would simply remain touring for several more years, until someone finally gives up and leaves them on display in a Paris park. They rest there for a decade or so, until they are moved into a warehouse, perhaps being disassembled even more, and that's where they rest to this day.

Alternatively, someone wealthy industrialist comes along and puts together enough funds to buy a site and build the pedestal, without the federal government's involvement. It ends up being erected in the middle of that man's lush estate as the centerpiece of some elaborate garden of monuments in a wealthy resort area. Or, maybe it's donated as the centerpiece of some Olmsted-designed park in New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Chicago, etc. Maybe it gets put up along the owner's railroad lines in Nowhere, Dakota Territory, where it slowly falls apart to corrosion and becomes a rather campy tourist attraction by the late 20th century (The Big French Lady in Pierre).

As for any changes to the diplomatic relations between the U.S. and France, I don't know, but I wouldn't suspect much will happen beyond a change in some city skylines.
 
<please note the following is filled with sarcasm and uhm.. wit>

The French being insulted would declare war on America forcing them to take the damn statue which they finally accede to doing... placing it in Mobile harbor in Alabama :eek:
 
<please note the following is filled with sarcasm and uhm.. wit>

The French being insulted would declare war on America forcing them to take the damn statue which they finally accede to doing... placing it in Mobile harbor in Alabama :eek:

I'm not sure I understand the joke. Are you expecting that it will be taken down by a hurricane sooner or later?
 
Maybe it gets put up along the owner's railroad lines in Nowhere, Dakota Territory, where it slowly falls apart to corrosion and becomes a rather campy tourist attraction by the late 20th century (The Big French Lady in Pierre).

I would TOTALLY pay to see a statue called that, I really would.
 
I'm not sure I understand the joke. Are you expecting that it will be taken down by a hurricane sooner or later?


THE STATUE OF LIBERTY.. located in the DEEP SOUTH.. PRE CIVIL RIGHTS and all that uhm.. (no pun for the southern folk) JAZZ..

oh the living irony... can read the sign now.. TOUR THE STATUE OF LIBERTY.. WHITES ONLY...
 
Hmm, so I guess if the statue was eventually erected somewhere other than New York harbor, the Emma Lazarus poem would never come to fruition.
 
From sea to shining sea...

Miss Congeniality movie will have the Miss America contestants in a less tacky head-dress.:rolleyes:
 
Well, the original plan was to place the Statue along the Suez Canal. Maybe that's where it ends up instead?
 
Not sure how much of a difference it would be, as you're comparing it to a coastal environment of moderate precipitation and a strong freeze-thaw cycle.
 
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