The work was exciting, but dangerous. 90% of the mountain was carved using dynamite . The powdermen would cut and set charges of dynamite of specific sizes to remove precise amounts of rock. Before the dynamite charges could be set off, the workers would have to be cleared from the mountain.
How Was Mt Rushmore Made?
Mt Rushmore is a monumental sculpture carved into the granite face of the Black Hills of South Dakota. It is a huge structure, made up of the faces of four former US presidents, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. The monument has become iconic of the American spirit, and it is visited by millions of tourists every year.
The project to build the monument began in 1927, when the South Dakota state historian Doane Robinson proposed the idea of creating a sculpture in the Black Hills. He wanted to create a monument to the West, and he suggested using the faces of four presidents to represent the different eras of American history.
The sculptor chosen to create the monument was Gutzon Borglum, who had experience with creating large-scale sculptures. Borglum chose the location on Mt Rushmore, which was then known as the “Six Grandfathers”. It took 14 years to complete the monument, and the final sculpture was unveiled in 1941.
To create the monument, Borglum and his team used dynamite to blast away the granite. They then used drills and hammer drills to carve the features of the faces. Borglum was very precise in his work, and he even made sure
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