Kentucky unveils new Lincoln statue

LOUISVILLE, Ky., June 5 (UPI) -- A larger-than-life statue of Abraham Lincoln was unveiled in Louisville, Ky. Thursday night to mark the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth in February of 1809.

The statue features the nation's 16th president seated on a rock in front of an amphitheater displaying some of his most famous phrases, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported Friday.

It is the work of Louisville sculptor Ed Hamilton and is accompanied by four bas-relief sculptures on granite slabs depicting Lincoln's boyhood near Hodgenville, his Kentucky friends and the Civil War.

The $2.4 million project stands along the Ohio River near where Lincoln and a friend boarded a steamboat in 1841 carrying slaves from Louisville to St. Louis.

Historians say Lincoln later wrote that the sight of the slaves "was a continual torment."

Funding for the memorial was provided by the state of Kentucky along with the family of the late Henry Frazier Jr. and the Kentucky Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission.

Boxing legend Muhammad Ali attended the unveiling ceremonies.