You’ve probably seen the photos. Millions of people stand at the base of the Statue of Liberty every year, craning their necks and squinting through phone screens. They think they’re seeing a symbol of immigration. Honestly? That’s only half the story. Most people walking the streets of Manhattan treat the statues in New York City like glorified pigeons perches. They’re background noise. But if you actually stop and look—really look—you realize these bronze and stone figures are basically the city’s diary entries, written in metal. Some of them are messy. Some are inspiring. Others? Well, they’re just plain weird.
New York is a graveyard of intentions. The city’s public art isn't just about "great men" on horses anymore. It’s a shifting, screaming, living map of who we think matters at any given second. From the high-stakes political drama surrounding Christopher Columbus to a random 10-foot squirrel currently perched on the steps of the Met, the statues here tell you more about the city’s current mood than any guidebook ever could.
The Heavy Hitters and the Myths We Believe
Let’s talk about the big green lady first. Everyone knows the Statue of Liberty was a gift from France. Simple, right? Except it wasn't just a "hey, congrats on the democracy" present. Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, the sculptor, originally wanted to build a giant lighthouse in Egypt. He got rejected. He basically took his "Egypt Carrying the Light to Asia" sketches, tweaked the outfit, and pitched it to the Americans.
And that whole "huddled masses" thing? The poem by Emma Lazarus wasn't even part of the original project. It was added later to help raise money for the pedestal because, frankly, the U.S. didn't want to pay for it. New York has always been a place where you have to hustle for your spot, even if you're a 305-foot goddess.
Then there’s Rockefeller Center. You’ve seen Atlas. He’s huge, bronze, and looks like he’s having a very bad day at the gym. People associate him with Ayn Rand now, but when he was unveiled in 1937, some folks actually thought he looked too much like Mussolini. It’s funny how a statue can go from "political threat" to "Instagram backdrop" in less than a century.
Why Statues in New York City Are Getting Weird (In a Good Way)
If you haven't been to the Metropolitan Museum of Art lately, you're missing out on the animals. As of late 2025, the "Genesis Facade Commission" has completely changed the vibe of Fifth Avenue. Jeffrey Gibson, an artist of Choctaw and Cherokee descent, installed four massive bronze sculptures in the niches where you’d usually expect to see classical, boring figures.
Instead? You get a hawk, a squirrel, a coyote, and a deer.
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They are ten feet tall. They’re covered in patterns that look like Indigenous beadwork. It’s a total vibe shift. It forces you to think about the "urban ecology"—basically the fact that while we’re busy hailing Ubers, there are actual coyotes prowling Central Park and hawks circling Tompkins Square. It’s the city acknowledging that it belongs to more than just humans.
The Underground and the Forgotten
Sometimes the best stuff is where you least expect it.
- 14th Street-8th Avenue Subway: Tom Otterness has these tiny bronze people all over the station. Some are getting swept into manholes. Others are trying to saw through the railings. It’s whimsical and a little dark.
- The Riverside Church Trumpet: There’s a "Resurrection Angel" on top of the tallest church in the U.S. In the 90s, its horn literally blew off in a storm and smashed a Mercedes. They had to cast a new one.
- The Lenin of the Lower East Side: Yes, there is a statue of Vladimir Lenin. He used to be on top of a building called "Red Square" on Houston Street, but he got moved to a tenement roof on Norfolk Street. It’s the kind of thing that makes you do a double-take while you're looking for a bagel shop.
The Great Statue Wars of the 2020s
We can't talk about statues in New York City without talking about the ones people want to tear down. Or the ones people are fighting to keep. As we move through 2026, the battle over Christopher Columbus is still red hot. Mayor Eric Adams recently pushed to have two Columbus statues (one in Manhattan, one in Queens) designated as official landmarks.
Why? Because landmarking them makes it almost impossible for future mayors to remove them.
It’s a chess move. On one side, you have activists pointing out that Columbus’s arrival led to the systemic destruction of Indigenous cultures. On the other, you have the Italian-American community seeing the statues as a vital symbol of their heritage and the immigrant struggle. It’s messy. It’s loud. It’s very New York.
Then you have the "replacement" projects that take forever. Vinnie Bagwell has been working on a monument called Victory Beyond Sims to replace the statue of J. Marion Sims, a doctor who performed experimental surgeries on enslaved Black women without anesthesia. The original statue was yanked down in 2018. The new one? It’s a slow climb through bureaucracy and funding.
Central Park's Gender Gap
For the longest time, if you were a woman in Central Park, you had to be a fictional character to get a statue. You could be Alice in Wonderland or Mother Goose. But a real, historical woman? Nope. Not until 2020.
That’s when the Women’s Rights Pioneers Monument showed up on the Literary Walk. It features Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. It’s a huge deal, but even that had drama. The original design didn't include Sojourner Truth, and people (rightfully) lost their minds about the erasure of Black women from the suffrage narrative. They fixed the design, but it’s a reminder that even our "tributes" are often works in progress.
How to Actually "See" These Things
If you want to do the statue thing right, quit looking at the plaques first. Look at the feet. Look at the wear and tear.
Go find Balto in Central Park. He’s the husky who delivered medicine to Nome, Alaska. His back and ears are polished bright gold because thousands of kids (and adults, let’s be honest) pet him every single day. That shiny metal is a physical record of human affection.
Or go to Wall Street and see the Charging Bull. People line up to take photos with its... well, its backside. It’s supposed to represent "virile" economic prosperity, but it’s basically become a global joke. Right nearby is the Fearless Girl. She was originally a marketing stunt for an index fund, but she became such a symbol of female empowerment that the city couldn't get rid of her.
Actionable Tips for Your Next Walk
Don't just walk past. The statues in New York City are essentially a free, open-air museum that never closes. If you’re planning a day of it, here is how to actually get the most out of it without feeling like a bored tourist:
- Check the Rooftops: Some of the best statues aren't at eye level. The Appellate Division Courthouse on 25th Street has nine legal giants (like Confucius and Moses) perched on the edge. One used to be Muhammad, but it was removed in the 50s after Muslim nations pointed out that depicting the Prophet is against Islamic law.
- Look for the "Invisible" Ones: In Riverside Park, there’s a memorial to Ralph Ellison, author of Invisible Man. It’s a hollowed-out bronze silhouette. You can see right through him. It’s brilliant.
- Visit the "New" Met: Seriously, go see those 10-foot animals by Jeffrey Gibson before the commission ends in June 2026. It’s a rare chance to see the Met's facade looking like something other than a 19th-century temple.
- The Smallest Detail: Find the Double Check statue near Zuccotti Park. It’s a bronze businessman sitting on a bench. After 9/11, rescuers actually tried to "save" him because he was covered in white dust and looked like a dazed survivor. It’s a haunting piece of history that stayed in place while the world changed around it.
New York is always moving, but its statues stay still—mostly. They're the only things in this city that don't have a 30-year lease or a "going out of business" sign. They are our permanent record, even when the record is controversial. Next time you're walking through a park or a subway station, stop for two minutes. Look at the eyes of the bronze figure. You might just realize the city is trying to tell you something.
Start your tour at the New-York Historical Society on 77th Street. They have life-size statues of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass right at the entrance. It’s the perfect starting point to understand the complicated, often contradictory story of freedom in this city before you head into the greenery of Central Park to find the rest.