As we mentioned earlier on, the Statue of Liberty was originally imported from France. Many people don’t know this, but it took several pieces to make it work. This massive statue was designed in parts to be assembled later, as its French designer and metalworker knew that this kind of project couldn’t be done in one go.
The statue’s hand lived on top of this building in New York City’s Madison Square Park from 1876 to 1882 before moving on to its current iconic location. This was quite an expensive project to complete, as the actual cost to build the Statue of Liberty was the equivalent of $250,000, or about $6 million when adjusted for inflation.
This Picture of Ford Executives Select Colors For Their Automobiles in 1953
Unless you’re planning on ordering a $200,000 custom-made Rolls Royce, chances are that you have a limited selection of colors to choose from for your new vehicle. While most of today’s cars are limited to a single color pattern, most automobiles contained a combination of two colors during the ‘50s. They usually had a primary body color and a secondary one for the roof.
In the picture, two Ford executives from Michigan are examining more than 70 of their vehicle’s scale models to see which color palettes look best on them. The chosen models would eventually turn into mass-production cars. Like many automakers, Ford has since ditched the two colors design in favor of a single metallic color for most of their vehicles.
This 1967 Corvette Stingray Turned Into a Boat Hybrid
The Corvette Stingray has been one of the most admired supercars on the road for a very long time. It represents the best when it comes to speed, aggressive design, and raw engine power. In recent decades, a man chose to turn his ‘67 Stingray into a functional boat hybrid.
He did this by lifting the top off his stingray and putting it on a fiberglass boat bottom. This turned the car into both a supercar and a boat at the same time. Unfortunately, these things don’t always work as well as they look, and it’s usually preferable to have both a car and a boat instead of one that does both.
This Restaurant Owner Offered to Open a $10,000 Bottle of Wine as a Prize for Osama Bin Laden’s Capture
Osama Bin Laden became the world’s most notorious and hunted man after 9/11. He was blamed for over 3,000 deaths that occurred that day, and the entire U.S. Army was hot on his tail. A few years later, Ted Balestreri, a restaurant owner from California, made a costly joke that turned into a reality.
He suggested that if Leon Panetta, the U.S. Defense Secretary, were to capture or kill Osama Bin Laden, he would open a bottle of his 141-year-old Chateau Lafite Rothschild, estimated at roughly $10,000. Once Bin Laden was taken down in 2011, Panetta told his wife, 'Tell Ted to get that bottle ready.’ The former Secretary of Defense enjoyed the bottle with several of his friends in CIA shot glasses, which they were allowed to keep.
The Elephant Gates in Copenhagen, Adorned With Symbols That Remain to This Day
It's impossible to call a tour of Copenhagen complete without visiting the famous Carlsberg Brewery and seeing its famous Elephant Gates. It has four life-sized elephant statues, and each one of them is adorned with a symbol that represents the regime of the 1930s in Germany. The elephants were originally built in 1901, back when the former German chancellor was still a young boy.
When the buildings were first sketched in 1882, their owner, Carl Jacobson, wanted to put a symbol of good luck and prosperity on his elephants. Unfortunately, he picked that symbol years before it became a symbol of hatred. The brewery closed its doors a few decades later in 1940, but the symbols remain to this day.