The comment was about understanding that the statue needed to handle winds in the harbor - not about curtain wall construction.
> and this was the tallest such structure at the time.
The wind load acting on lighthouses and chimneys was formulated in France by L. Fresnel in 1825. One of the Seven Wonders of The Ancient World was also a lighthouse, Egypt’s Pharos of Alexandria. As the first known lighthouse it stood 450' or 145' taller than today's Statue of Liberty.