Grant's Tomb

[Category: 'Grant's Tomb' facts and description]

Grant's Tomb is a mausoleum (mausoleum: A large burial chamber, usually above ground)  containing the bodies of Ulysses S. Grant (Ulysses S. Grant: 18th President of the United States; commander of the Union armies in the American Civil War (1822-1885))  (1822-1885), an American Civil War (American Civil War: Civil war in the United States between the North and the South; 1861-1865)  General and the 18th President (President: The chief executive of a republic)  of the United States (United States: North American republic containing 50 states - 48 conterminous states in North America plus Alaska in northwest North America and the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean; achieved independence in 1776) , and his wife, Julia Dent Grant (Julia Dent Grant: more facts about this subject)  (1826-1902). The tomb complex is now officially known as the General Grant National Memorial and is located in Riverside Park (Riverside Park: riverside park is a scenic waterfront park on the upper west side of manhattan in...
[follow hyperlink for more...])  in Manhattan (Manhattan: One of the five boroughs of New York City) , New York, New York (New York, New York: new york city (officially named the city of new york) is the largest city, by population,...
[follow hyperlink for more...]) , near the intersection of Riverside Drive (Riverside Drive: more facts about this subject)  and 122nd Street.

Designed by architect John Duncan (John Duncan: more facts about this subject) , the granite and marble structure was completed in 1897 and at the time was the largest mausoleum (mausoleum: A large burial chamber, usually above ground)  in North America. Duncan took as his general model the original mausoleum, the tomb of Mausolus at Halicarnassus (tomb of Mausolus at Halicarnassus: more facts about this subject) , one of the seven wonders of the world (seven wonders of the world: the seven wonders of the world are usually taken to be the seven wonders of the ancient...
[follow hyperlink for more...]) . A huge public subscription paid for it. Over a million people had attended Grant's funeral parade, held in 1885 and which was seven miles (11 km) long and featured Confederate and Union generals riding together in open victorias, U.S. President Grover Cleveland (Grover Cleveland: 22nd and 24th President of the United States (1837-1908)) , his cabinet, all the Justices of the Supreme Court, and virtually the entire Congress. The parade for the dedication ceremony of the tomb, held April 27, 1897, the 75th anniversary of Grant's birth, was almost as large and was headed by President William McKinley (William McKinley: 25th President of the United States; was assassinated by an anarchist (1843-1901)) .

Walt Whitman (Walt Whitman: United States poet who celebrated the greatness of America (1819-1892))  (1819-1892) wrote:

"As one by one withdraw the lofty actors

From that great play on history's stage eterne

That lurid, partial act of War and peace -- of old and new contending,

Fought out through wrath, fears, dark dismays, and many a long suspense;

All past -- and since, in countless graves receding, mellowing,

Victors and vanquish'd -- Lincoln's and Lee's -- now thou with them,

Man of the mighty days -- and equal to the days!

Thou from the prairies! -- tangled and many-vein'd and hard has been thy part,

To admiration has it been enacted!"

Duncan's over-ambitious original design, chosen by the Grant Monument Association, included monumental staircases leading down through terraced gardens to a dock on the river, bridging the Hudson Line railroad tracks and providing public access to the shoreline, was scaled back, and the monument itself was reduced in size. The domed space, with commemorative mosaic murals and sculpture, and a large central oculus revealing on the lower level the twin porphyry catafalques of the General's and Mrs Grant's, are quite spectacular examples of purely symbolic Beaux-Arts (Beaux-Arts: more facts about this subject)  civic triumphalism. The conception may have been drawn from the catafalque of Napoleon at Les Invalides (Les Invalides: les invalides in paris, france consists of a complex of buildings in the 7th arrondissement,...
[follow hyperlink for more...]) . Over the entrance are carved words from Grant's 1885 memoirs: "Let us have peace."

In the late 20th century, the tomb was allowed to decline to a state of severe disrepair, and was considered by many to be an eyesore and a desecration. In the 1990s, after a paper by a Columbia University (Columbia University: A university in New York City)  student was released to the news media and Grant's descendants threatened to remove the remains and have them buried elsewhere, the National Park Service (National Park Service: An agency of the Interior Department responsible for the National Parks)  was embarrassed into spending $1.8 million to restore the memorial and to provide for upkeep. When the work was complete, a re-dedication was held on the dedication's centennial, April 27, 1997.