Mount Rushmore is located in South Dakota. The main feature of the mountain is a man-made landmark - a monument to the four presidents of the United States. In 2007, an intrigue sprang up around the monuments, thanks to the released action movie "National Treasure: Book of Secrets". In one of the episodes, it is shown that behind Lincoln's head there is a secret passage going deep into the cliff. The motion picture tells that he leads to the lost Golden City, which was trying to hide the evil forces behind the backs of the monument. What is this room and what is in it?
Big idea
After the release of the film, many suspected that gold was hidden under Mount Rushmore. In fact, it is not there, but there is a 21 meter long passage carved into the rock. It is not secret, but the public cannot get into it, which is associated with a dangerous ascent. This place has its own history.
The tunnel was created in the late 1930s by the sculptor Gutzon Borglum. He considered the secret passage to be the most important part of the entire monument. In the man-made caves measuring 743 square meters, the documents of his country, such as the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, busts of prominent figures in the history of the country, samples of the scientific and cultural achievements of the nation, were to be carefully preserved.
According to Borglum, in the repositories it was necessary to collect all the information about the great civilization that the white people created on the land of the Indians, so that through the millennia it could be reproduced anywhere on the Earth or in space.
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Hall of records
According to Borglum's design, one of the caves was intended for the consolidation and storage of records. In the project, it is presented as a recording hall with a size of 6 square meters. The entrance to it, according to the idea, is limited by glass doors, above them there is a bronze sculpture of an eagle. This splendor is crowned with the motto "America is coming".
A staircase carved into the rock was intended to provide access to the hall. The architect planned that the length of the staircase would be about 244 meters in the granite massif. The Hall of Records is only a small part of the grand idea. While developing the memorial, its author drew inspiration from Egypt, examining the pyramids, the Colossus of Rhodes and many other ancient wonders of the world, carved from stone, became no less impressive for him.
Fanatic fantasies
One of the historians and staff of the Mount Rushmore Memorial Park, having studied the records of Borglum, said that the architect wanted descendants to see not only these heads, but had complete guidance in order to put together American civilization - from idea to finished project.
Borglum himself wrote in one of his letters that his goal was that even after 10 thousand years any record could tell descendants who and how built the great Western civilization. The architect was afraid of the future, he was afraid that in centuries from America there would be no more memories.
The author of the memorial wanted the recording hall to make an indelible impression with its magnificence. The design project included fluted columns and ceilings that resemble the vault of cathedrals. Hollywood inspired him to make such decisions with its cinematic epics. According to some reports, over time, the project became more complex and included several halls and several floors.
Final story
The sculptor never calculated how much the work on the recording room would cost, which was the death of the project. Congress, which decided to take over the funding of the memorial, refused to issue the author a signed check with an unlimited limit. When the available funds ran out, work on the hall was stopped. This happened in 1939. Legislators felt that the carved heads of the Founding Fathers were enough for America.
After the death of Borglum and the entry of the United States into World War II, all work on Mount Rushmore was completely suspended. The tunnel became the only part of the hall. The architect's daughter, Mary Alice Borglum, decided to contribute to her father's work and partially filled the passage with notes. They are made on 16 enamelled porcelain panels, funded by the non-profit organization supporting the National Memorial.
According to some reports, some of the panels tell about the history of Mount Rushmore, about the reasons why four US presidents were immortalized. Some panels contain a brief history of the United States. The entrance to this vault is guarded by a 544 kg keystone.
The idea of Gutzon Borglum was not fully realized, but some of his desires were nevertheless realized. Perhaps, if after a couple of hundred centuries humanity nevertheless disappears, and aliens arrive on Earth, then it will be very entertaining entertainment for them to unravel the story of four faces on one mountain.
Author: Politikova Tatiana