The image of Nathan Hale gazed at passersby in almost the same location, where on September 22, 1776, he was hanged by Loyalist partisans during the American Revolution.

The statue was cast in Paris, France and came to the United States a fortnight before its originally planned unveiling date of June 8, 1893.

It was placed facing the junction of Broadway and Chambers Street,[2] after the drum-shaped[1] granite pedestal, also eight feet tall, was attached as its stand.

[2] Six feet tall in real life,[1] Hale's artistic rendition has hands which are held out as far as the rope cords permit.

Henry Marquand called the statue the finest produced on the United States side of the Atlantic Ocean.