If I put a picture of the statue of liberty on here, you would think we had been to New York, but you would be wrong. Acutally, an insurance company in Birmingham, AL, had a 36 foot replica built and it stands on I-459 near the boy scout headquarters. But the really interesting statue in Birmingham is the one of Vulcan. He was the god of fire and volcanoes, and the manufacturer of arms, iron, and armor for gods and heroes. Apparently, Birmingham started as a city of iron ore mines and steel mills. In order to advertise the city's products, Vulcan was cast as an exhibit for the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. He was (and still is) the world's largest cast metal statue and the largest statue ever made in the U.S. He is 56 ft. tall. After the World's Fair, he stood at the Birmingham fair grounds until 1937, when he was placed on his new base on Red Mountain -- the very mountain from which his iron body had been mined. Isn't that special?
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