She arrived in Gainesville at 7 feet, 6 inches tall, 14 feet long and weighing 2,200 pounds Friday afternoon at the intersection of Green and Academy streets, one of Gainesville’s heaviest-trafficked sites.

Her birthplace is Cumming, from the mind of sculptor Gregory Johnson. Her delivery was more than 1,800 miles away in the small town of Lander, Wyo., where Monte Paddleford, president of Eagle Bronze Inc., who also holds a degree in metallurgy, molded her into a mammoth bronze statue. She is Brenau’s Golden Tiger.

The statue is a gift of North Carolina philanthropist Irwin “Ike” Belk, who donated similar pieces to more than 40 colleges and universities, including the U.S. Air Force Academy’s famous Flying Falcon and Campbell University’s Fighting Camel.

Traffic was slow on Green Street while drivers and passengers “rubber-necked” to see the first view of the coveted bronze sculpture as it was lifted near the dark gray granite base. Brenau University staff and students, as well as neighborhood parents with children, stood motionless as the big cat was hoisted with a crane owned and operated by Oak Hill Memorial of Elberton.

The Golden Tiger was only inches from her final resting place. Now was the time to line up the rods to secure her girth for her new home. As Paddleford scoped the base, Johnson gently guided the cat with a slight touch of the tiger’s front leg.

Minutes later, without fanfare, the Golden Tiger was set.

“We are in,” Johnson said.

The artist has completed more than 20 sculptures on Belk’s commissions. Johnson said he is fairly certain that the Brenau Golden Tiger is the largest of its kind in the United States.

“The sculpture is twice the size of a real golden tiger,” he said.

Johnson circled Brenau’s plaza meeting university dignitaries and members of the local press. With his cigar balancing between his fingers, he did not stand long with anyone. His eyes were always on The Golden Tiger.

When the sculpture was commissioned by Brenau, Johnson said he felt an amiable tiger would be more poetic for the university. His tiger’s face lifts toward Green Street with its head tilted.

“I designed her to be nice and pleasant; this is a fine arts community,” he said.

But his thoughts were also for the natural environment where real golden tigers roam and sit.

“I placed her slightly uphill on a pile of rocks, more lifelike, more like in Mother Nature,” he said.

The tiger’s form sits with shoulder’s slightly hunched, a curled tail and its gigantic paws crossed.

Johnson said he drew five different images for the statue and even studied the skeleton of a tiger before creating Brenau’s tiger.

Part of the story of Brenau’s Golden Tiger is also its journey from Wyoming. Hauled on an exposed trailer, the bronze tiger drew attention to its size, especially at gas stations.

“We enjoyed the roadside survey and compliments,” said Johnson. Car washes helped to “knock the dust off.”

He shared one story of a dog barking madly inside his master’s truck. “My dog has never acted like that before — with any cat,” Johnson was told.

Before the final dedication, probably sometime in late summer or early fall, the university plans to relandscape the area to convert the garden into a front entrance for Brenau, according to a university news release.

“It’s a big tiger, but it is the only tiger in town,” Brenau President Ed Schrader said.

He said the university has been looking at the garden for more than eight years as an outreach opportunity for the community.

Melissa Morgan, director of Brenau’s three galleries said an installation like the Golden Tiger will quickly integrate itself into the fabric of the community, a place where people want to get their pictures taken, she said.

“I think this particular piece in Gainesville will unify the campus and the community even more by becoming a catalyst for creativity, conversation and accessibility,” Morgan said.

Brenau came to Belk’s attention through Johnson who produced five other pieces on commission, including a smaller tiger statue placed at the front door of the university’s athletics complex. The university reciprocated by conferring on Belk an honorary doctorate at its May 2012 commencement.

Belk, 90, is son of the founder of the Belk department store chair.

“Ike Belk says he got into the business of installing statuary by accident when he was involved with a project that needed some landscaping touches,” Schrader said.