ABSTRACT
Stonehenge in England was the epitome of simplicity, elegance, science, and nature; the same could be said about the Parthenon in Athens, though these two monuments are entirely different. The Mount Rushmore National Memorial in the Black Hills of South Dakota bridges the gap between the architectural and artistic worlds. This massive stone carving represents the nation's achievements as well as those of the people who created the monument. A plume of melted material from the center of the earth gradually rose to the surface around one and a half billion years ago, and granite was formed. This is what created the base for Mount Rushmore. The quartz and other materials found today at the site were created by the contact between this melted rock and the existing compressed sandstone. Once the face of the stone was close to the required size, the workers started drilling. Pieces of rock were drilled with jackhammers rather than chiseled away.
