The Famous Sculpture You Know.....

That would be Mt. Rushmore. Envisioned as a way to bring tourists to South Dakota, the original idea by local visionaries was to have the faces of western heroes adorn a granite peak in the Black Hills. But, after the locals had trouble drumming up support for their idea, they called in the master sculptor of the time, Gutzon Borglum, who had just finished his work on Stone Mountain in Georgia. Borglum's choice of subjects, four U.S. presidents, promised to elevate the memorial from a regional enterprise to a national monument. Work on the sculpture began in 1927 and took 14 years to complete. Only 6 years were spent on actual carving-- the rest were spent lobbying Congress, cabinet members, and presidents to provide enough funding to complete the work. Washington was the first head finished (1930), followed by Jefferson (1936), Lincoln (1937), and Roosevelt (1939). Interesting tidbit -- carving of the Jefferson head was originally started to the left of the Washington head and was well underway before Borglum realized there was not enough suitable granite left to finish the work. They blasted Jefferson's head from the mountain and started a new one in its current location.

Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln keeping an eye on the more than 3 million visitors who come to their mountain every year.