I felt drawn to Mount Rushmore, instinctively, like a spawning fish to the head of a river. Funding for Mount Rushmore was touch-and-go, as was political and public support. The sculpting of Mount Rushmore began in 1927, with a ceremony overseen by President Calvin Coolidge, who wore a comically large hat. The granite of Mount Rushmore is so hard that the sculptures will erode at a rate of one inch every 10,000 years. Several times, as we drove to Mount Rushmore, we worried that the road was too small for our car.

Source: New York Times March 22, 2017 09:00 UTC