The iconic statue has been standing in New York Harbor as a symbol of American freedom since 1886. But it still holds a few secrets know-it-all New Yorkers may not know.
In the premiere of “Secrets of America’s Favorite Places,” airing Sunday at 6 p.m. on Discovery Family channel, experts delve into the national monument’s long-forgotten history.
Although the commonly accepted story has it that French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi’s mother was his inspiration for the great statue’s face, on the show, author and journalist Elizabeth Mitchell reveals an alternative theory, which she uncovered while researching her book “Liberty’s Torch: The Great Adventure To Build the Statue of Liberty.”
“As I was looking at it more carefully, the structure of the face isn’t really the same. [His mother] has a more arched eyebrow, has a thinner nose, has thinner lips, even in her youth. And he was a bust-maker … and was known for his accuracy,” Mitchell tells The Post.
“Going through photos he had in his files of his brother, I started to look at the face more carefully, and it really did look to be like Liberty. His brother in his adult years had actually gone mad, and it was Bartholdi’s task to go once a week to visit, sometimes [spending] hours just staring at his brother, who was not speaking.”
That would be interesting if this we're true. The idea that one of America's symbols of freedom is a man in drag. It certainly would shock the close-minded.
Serve that torch to the skies. 
