What presidents are on Mount Rushmore and how long did it take to build?

Conceived as a way to attract tourism to South Dakota, the Mount Rushmore National Memorial has achieved its goal and is the state’s top tourist destination. More than two million visitors travel to the Black Hills each year to see the enormous sculpture of four U.S. presidents who marked the country’s history.

The 18-metre-high busts of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt were carved from the mountain’s massive granite and from the time the project was planned to its completion in 1941, just under two decades passed - and not a single worker was killed.

Mount Rushmore was built in 14 years

Mount Rushmore, known locally as the Six Grandfathers, was not the first site envisioned for a monument to American democracy. Conceived in 1923 by South Dakota state historian Doane Robinson, the monument was originally intended to be carved into the Needles, a series of granite pillars. However, Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor who would undertake the work, told him that the eroded rocks were not suitable for carving.

The second location appealed more to Borglum, as its southeastern orientation allowed for maximum exposure to the sun. In the final days of President Calvin Coolidge’s term in office, Congress approved the project in March 1925, and construction began just over two years later. About 400 men and women worked on the project between October 1927 and October 1941. The cutting was done with dynamite and then with honeycombs to remove smaller pieces. Despite the risk involved in the work, there were no fatalities.

The Black Hills region where the heads were carved is part of the ancestral land of the Lakota Sioux, so the Mount Rushmore sculpture has been a source of ongoing controversy over whether it is a disrespectful invasion of Native American heritage and lands.

The Presidents of Mount Rushmore

“The purpose of the monument is to communicate the founding, expansion, preservation and unification of the United States,” explained the sculptor who oversaw the work. Those chosen to represent this idea were, from left to right on the monument, Washington, Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Lincoln.

George Washington (1732-1799)

Washington was elected for his role in the birth of the United States. He is regarded as one of the Founding Fathers and is also known as the ‘Father of the Nation’. As commander of the Continental Army, he led American forces to victory in the Revolutionary War. He was later elected as the first president of the United States, serving two terms from 1789 to 1797.

Perhaps his greatest gift to the nation was the peaceful transfer of power. He deliberately decided not to run for a third term and to pass the baton of leading the nation to someone else.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

Jefferson represents the expansion of the nation. He is the author of the Declaration of Independence and a Founding Father, and he was the third president of the United States. During his term in office, from 1801 to 1809, he oversaw the Louisiana Purchase. This acquisition doubled the territory under the control of the American government and allowed the nation to expand westward. He also convinced Congress to fund the Lewis and Clark expedition, which, in search of a route to the Pacific, mapped the newly discovered lands.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919)

Roosevelt was elected to preserve the nation's wealth and beauty. As the 26th president, from 1901 to 1909, he made heritage conservation a priority. He established the national park system and set aside numerous forests and natural monuments to preserve America's wilderness, the nation's "cathedrals."

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

As the 16th president of the United States, from 1861 until his assassination in 1865, Lincoln oversaw one of the darkest periods in the nation’s history, the Civil War. Lincoln led the nation through the war and declared an end to the conflict with his Emancipation Proclamation, earning him a place on Mount Rushmore as America’s unifier.