Mount Rushmore Memorial

Memorialize

Monuments are everywhere, whether to honor a person, place, or thing. They are important in remembering a cultural heritage or an event that took place. Memorials have been built for thousands of years to remember the fallen. A great deal of contemplation is put into the mere idea of a monument. There are a few specific concepts to keep in mind before constructing a monument, which these three monuments so obviously embrace.

First and foremost, is Mount Rushmore, an exact facsimile of a perfect monument. This resplendent yet diffident mountain has the four faces of Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and George Washington carved into the side of its face. It honors these four presidents and the things they accomplished with its silent grandeur and stony complexion. Approximately 3 million tourists visit the site a year. "Both are tributes to greatness." Source C (Downes). This great mountain is most definitely a tribute to greatness. Mount Rushmore is one of the best known monuments in the US, due to it's size and splendor, but also what it stands for: greatness and implementation.

This memorial shows that any dream is possible if you have the will to accomplish it. If not for him, we would not be where we are today. He discovered America in hopes to find a free land that would make the lives of so many people better. When building this memorial, the architect had to take into account the fact that this monument was being built for a man we owe our lives to, so it had to look the part. Source B (photo). The pride we hold in this country and the victory we feel when we think of all the men who died for it, in short, is all thanks to Christopher