Birmingham, Alabama -
Statue of Liberty Replica

This photo of Birmingham's Statue of Liberty was taken from River Run Drive, as it is difficult to get a good frontal shot from the base of the statue itself. [Christopher Rowland, 04/05/2008]

[RA: According to the plaque at its base, this bronze replica was commissioned by the founder of Liberty National Life Insurance Company to stand atop its downtown office building. The statue was cast in France, set on its rooftop perch in 1958, and moved to its present location in 1989. At 36 feet tall this is among the largest Liberty replicas in the U.S. -- but you can't climb up inside it, unfortunately.]

You discovered our statue of Vulcan and our Statue of Liberty, but you haven't yet discovered the statue of Electra in Birmingham, Alabama. Our city really isn't teeming with statues of pagan deities, but the tall, slender, golden Electra watches downtown Birmingham from her perch atop the old Alabama Power Building. Decades ago, people used to joke that Vulcan and Electra were a couple. [Charles Buchanan, 03/25/1999]

The Statue is the largest around, surpassing even the original model currently in France. Liberty Park is its current home...but just off Interstate 459 (visible rather nicely from both directions), not 280 (although it is only a few miles from the 280/459 junction). The flame is in fact lit with Alabama natural gas, and has only gone out twice in it's history. The small park area at the base of the statue is open to the public free of charge during daylight hours. Her recent next-door neighbor is the new Birmingham Area Boy Scout headquarters, which is an underground structure designed to look like a bridge. There is also a small Boy Scout museum in the headquarters. [Brian Grisaffi, 03/15/1998]