General Grant National Memorial

Not everyone comes to NYC to explore the 10 NPS park units in The Big Apple, but this was my goal for this trip. We headed out early on a Sunday morning with the help of our wonderful driver George. As the birds were chirping and the city was waking up, we set out to visit six units … and I am super excited to share we accomplished it with flying colors … and a few obstacles (We had to maneuver around the city as we shared the road with the Five Boro Bike Tour, as tens of thousands of cyclists enjoyed a 40-mile charity ride to raise funds for free bike education programming)!!!

The General Grant National Memorial is closed for construction, but that cannot stop us from soaking up the beauty of the park nor the history. The memorial is “Grant’s Tomb” as it is the final resting place for the victorious Union commander and President of the United States Ulyssess. S. Grant and his wife Julia Dent Grant. It is 150 feet hight and was completed in 1897. I loved the creative mosaics that surround the perimeter.

“The General Grant National Memorial is surrounded by an art project known as the Mosaic Rolling Bench. It was commissioned by the National Park Service during the 1970s during a dark time for the memorial to discourage graffiti artists from tagging the tomb. It also commemorated the 100th anniversary (3/1/1872) of President’s Grant’s signing the law that designated Yellowstone as the world’s first national park.

The benches were designed by Pedro Silva and Phillip Danzig. The mosaics were assembled with help from hundreds of volunteers from the community and was the largest public art project in the USA. In the 1997, there was talk of removing the benches, but activists intervened to save them. This year, the NPS and CITYarts will restore the 48 year old mosaics.”