This Day In History

4 October: Sculpting of Mount Rushmore begins!

Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a sculpture carved into the hard, granite face of Mount Rushmore. Sculpting began on this day in 1927, by Gutzon Borglum and later finished by his son, Lincoln.

The rather breathtaking spectacle attracts 2 million people every year, and features 60-foot (18 m) sculptures of the heads of former United States presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.

The faces of the presidents were finished between 1934 and 1939. The original idea was for each president to be depicted from head to waist, but lack of funding forced construction to end in October 1941.

The large carved faces of the monument have made it a target for parodies and other symbolic alterations of its appearance in media, frequently including replacement of one or more of the four presidents' faces with other people or characters, or the addition of another face. Such a device was used in the movies Superman II, Mars Attacks!, the Japanese anime series "Naruto" and the 2008 video game Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. In Sam and Max Hit the Road, you could bungee out of the presidents noses on green cords, essentially making you a giant booger... which is nice.