05/08/2024
Nancy thinks Joe should have a spot on Mount Rushmore... Really...
Here are some facts about Mount Rushmore:
Presidents: The faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln are carved into the granite mountainside in South Dakota's Black Hills. Sculptor Gutzon Borglum chose these presidents to represent the first 150 years of American history, believing they represented the country's birth, growth, development, and preservation, respectively.
Construction: Construction began on October 4, 1927 and took 14 years to complete, with over 400 workers, mostly miners, using dynamite, jackhammers, chisels, and drills. Dynamite was used to blast 410,000 tons of rock from the mountainside, and then stonemasons used precision tools to remove the remaining 10% by hand. The total cost of the memorial was $989,992.32.
Size: The carvings are 60 feet high, with each president's head measuring about 18 feet tall, nose about 20 feet long, and mouth about 5.5 feet wide.
Other facts
The top of Mount Rushmore is 5,725 feet above sea level.
The sculpture is estimated to erode by one inch every 10,000 years, and after about 500,000 years the faces may lose some of their definition. However, the basic shape of the heads could last up to 7 million years.
There's a hidden chamber behind Lincoln's head.
Theodore Roosevelt's face has ridges on his upper cheeks and pince-nez, which creates an optical illusion that makes it look like he's wearing glasses from a distance.
