The Largest Monument - Gateway Arch

The Gateway Arch, also known as the Gateway to the West, is an integral part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial and the iconic image of St. Louis, Missouri. It was designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen and structural engineer Hannskarl Bandel in 1947. It stands 630 feet (192 m) tall, and is 630 feet (192 m) wide at its base, making it the tallest monument in the United States. Construction of the arch started on February 12, 1963 and was completed on October 28, 1965. The monument opened to the public on July 10, 1967.

The cross-sections of its legs are equilateral triangles, narrowing from 54 feet (16 m) per side at the base to 17 feet (5.2 m) at the top. Each wall consists of a stainless steel skin covering a sandwich of two carbon steel walls with reinforced concrete in the middle from ground level to 300 feet (91 m), with carbon steel and rebar from 300 feet (91 m) to the peak. The interior of the Arch is hollow and contains a unique transport system leading to an observation deck at the top. The interior of the Arch also contains two emergency stairwells of 1076 steps each, in the event of a need to evacuate the Arch or if a problem develops with the tram system.

The base of each leg at ground level had an engineering tolerance of one sixty-fourth of an inch or the two legs would not meet at the top.

During construction, both legs were built up simultaneously. When the time came to connect both legs together at the apex, thermal expansion of the sunward facing south leg prevented it from aligning precisely with the north leg. This alignment problem was solved when the St. Louis Fire Department sprayed the south leg with water from firehoses until it had cooled to the point where it aligned with the north leg.
It is the tallest habitable structure in Missouri, 7 feet higher than the 623 foot spire of One Kansas City Place in Kansas City, and 37 feet higher than the roof of Metropolitan Square in St. Louis, Missouri.

Observation area

Near the top of the arch, the rider exits the compartment and climbs a slight grade to enter the arched observation area. Thirty-two small windows (16 per side) measuring 7 by 27 inches (180 mm × 690 mm) allow views across the Mississippi River and southern Illinois with its prominent Mississippian culture mounds to the east at Cahokia Mounds, and the City of Saint Louis and St. Louis County to the west beyond the city. On a clear day, one can see up to thirty miles (48 km).

Source: wikipedia.org

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Mount Rushmore National Memorial

Official name: Mount Rushmore National Memorial
Built: 1927-1941
Designed by: Gutzon Borglum

Mount Rushmore near Keystone, South Dakota, is a monumental granite sculpture located within the United States Presidential Memorial that represents the first 150 years of the history of the United States of America with 60-foot (18 m) sculptures of the heads of former U.S. Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. The entire memorial covers 1,278 acres (5.17 km²), and is 5,725 feet (1,745 m) above sea level. It is managed by the National Park Service, a bureau of the United States Department of the Interior. The memorial attracts approximately 2 million people annually.

Known to the Lakota Sioux as Six Grandfathers, the mountain was renamed after Charles E. Rushmore, a prominent New York lawyer, during an expedition in 1885. At first, the project of carving Rushmore was undertaken to increase tourism in the Black Hills region of South Dakota. After long negotiations involving a Congressional delegation and President Calvin Coolidge, the project received Congressional approval. The carving started in 1927 and ended in 1941 with a few injuries and no deaths.

Rushmore Facts:

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  Sculptor Gutzon Borglum began drilling into the 5,725-foot mountain in 1927, at the age of 60.
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  Creation of the Shrine of Democracy took 14 years and cost a mere $1 million.
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  Rushmore's granite faces tower 5,500 feet above sea level.
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  The carvings on Mount Rushmore are scaled to men who would stand 465 feet tall.
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  Each head on Mt. Rushmore is as tall as a six-story building.
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  More that 800 million pounds of stone were removed from Mount Rushmore while carving the presidents.
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  Each president's face is as tall as the entire Great Sphinx of Egypt, measuring 60 feet from the chin to the top of the head.
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  The president's noses are 20 feet long, each mouth 18 feet wide and the eyes are 11 feet across.
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  The workers had to climb 506 steps daily to get to the top of Mount Rushmore.
  

  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  

  
  

  O ne of America's national treasures, this monument symbolizes how the United States can take themes common in other parts of the world (in this case a frieze) and recreate them in an unprecedented scale. The monument is busts of four American Presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. They were chosen to represent the great leaders of the country's first 150 years, and each symbolizes a particular aspect of the country's history: the nation's founding, political philosophy, preservation, and expansion. It took 400 workers 14 years to carve the 60-foot tall sculptures into the granite face of Mount Rushmore. But there is more to this 1,278-acre national park than just the monument. There is also the Sculptor's House, built in 1939 that shows how the monument was made, as well as a number of hiking, walking, and interpretive trails.

  
  
  

  • On a clear day, the heads are visible for 60 miles.
  • Mount Rushmore is 6,000 feet (1,829 meters) above sea level.
  • The busts face northeast toward Rapid City.
  • Mount Rushmore was designated a National Memorial in 1925 -- two years before construction began.
  • The idea for the monument came from Jonah Robinson of the South Dakota State Historical Society.
  • The origin of the name "Mount Rushmore" is not entirely clear. The most popular story is that a New York attorney by the name of Charles E. Rushmore visited the area in 1885 and upon learning that the then-uncarved peak lacked an official name, decided to name it after himself.

  
  Models Used in Shaping Mt. Rushmore Group
  Right, general view of work on Mt. Rush-more memorial. Inset, Gutzon Borglum inspecting the sculpture, which calls for carving the faces of Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt on the mountainside. Workers’ tiny figures give an idea of project’s size
  Left, measuring model in studio helps workers locate same relative spot on mountainside. Multiplying studio readings by twelve gives the correct distances. Right, giant proportions of the memorial are illustrated by measurements of this huge face.

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Beauty of India-Tajmahal

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Beauty of India-Tajmahal

History Of Taj Mahal
--{ Click Here to Visit Taj Mahal }--
For centuries, the Taj Mahal has inspired poets, painters and musicians to try and capture its elusive magic in word, colour and song. It is one of the most flawless architectural creations of the world. Since the 17th century, travellers have crossed continents to come and see this ultimate memorial to love, and few have been unmoved by its incomparable beauty.Taj Mahal stands in the city of Agra, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, on the banks of the Yamuna River. It was built in the memory of the beautiful Arjumand Bano Begum, who won the heart of a Mughal prince. She was married at 21 to Emperor Jahangir’s third son Prince Khurram and stayed loyally by his side through good times and bad: in the luxurious royal palaces of Agra as well as the transient tents of war camps.In AD 1628, Khurram became king after a bloody battle of succession: he took the name Shahjahan or “King of the World” and showered his beloved begum with the highest titles. She became Mumtaz Mahal, the exalted of the palace and Mumtaz-ul-Zamani, the exalted of the Age. But Mumtaz Mahal was not destined to be queen for long. In 1631, Shahjahan went on an expedition to the south and, as always, Mumtaz Mahal accompanied him. But she died in childbirth at Burhanpur. She had borne Shahjahan fourteen children, of whom four sons and three daughters survived. When Mumtaz Mahal died, she was just 39 years old. Shahjahan was inconsolable and contemporary chronicles tell of the royal court mourning for two years. there was no music, no feasting, and no celebration of any kind.
Epitome Of Love -Taj MahalShahjahan, who was a passionate builder, now decided to erect a memorial to his queen in pristine marble that the world would never forget. The site selected for the tomb was a garden by the Yamuna river, unshadowed by any other structure. The garden had been laid by Raja Man Singh of Amber and now belonged to his grndson, Raja Jai Singh. By a royal firman, Shahjahan gave Jai Singh four havelis in exchange for the garden. The site was also chosen because it was located on a bend in the river, and so could be seen from Shahjahan’s personal palace in Agra Fort, further upstream.Construction Of The Mausoleum - Taj MahalWork on the mausoleum began in 1633 and 20,000 workers laboured for 17 years to build it. The most skilled architects, inlay craftsmen, calligraphers, stone-carvers and masons came from all across Indian and lands as distant as Persia and Turkey. The master mason was from Baghdab, an expert in building the double dome from Persia, and an inlay specialist from Delhi.Yemen sent agates, the corals came from Arabia, the garnets from Bundelkhand, onyx and amethyst from Persia. Mumtaz Mahal’s final resting-place was ornamented like a queen’s jewel-box.

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