America's Mausoleum of Halicarnassus

I'm standing in Upper Manhattan's Riverside Park, not far from Columbia University. And here behind me is Grant's Tomb. It's remarkable for a number of reasons. First and foremost, it's very big. In fact, the biggest tomb anywhere in America, or for that matter, the Western Hemisphere. It was, for decades, New York City's premier tourist attraction, more popular even than the Statue of Liberty. And it is the best occasion here in America of the Mausoleum of Pelicarnassus, the lost wonder of the world that gives us the term mausoleum. Grant died in 1885, and almost immediately there was a public outcry to build this two-term president and Civil War hero a suitably impressive memorial. Grant's wife, Julia, and son, Fred, decided it should be here in New York. But there was great indecision about what the design should be. Two contests were held. The first was inconclusive. The second was won by a guy named John Duncan, who was special for his victory in designing the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial over in Brooklyn. Duncan decided he wanted to evoke the Mausoleum of Pelicarnassus, the great tomb that had housed the remains of Mausolus of Caria, a satrap or governor of the Persian Empire. Mausolus and his tomb were known only from ancient sources above all Pliny the Elder. It wasn't until much later that there were excavations done to recover the remains of the mausoleum and decipher its design. And so Duncan only knew that it was a two-stage structure that had many sculptures, an impressive array of columns on the second story, and a stepped pyramidal roof. He tried to replicate these features in his design. As you can see, Grant's tomb has two stories, the first larger, the second with columns, and on top an almost ziggurat-style pyramidal roof. Originally, his design was even more elaborate, with quite a few statues that were slashed for budgetary reasons. The interior was not completed until 1897, 12 years after Grant's death. As you'd expect, it's very neoclassical in detail, with this Roman-style coffering and reliefs and mosaics showing episodes from Grant's career. Here in the center is the crypt, within which are the two granite sarcophagi that house the remains of Grant and his wife Julia. They're made from a granite that resembles porphyry, the stone used to inter the Roman emperors and later Napoleon, a nice evocation of the very classical send-off given to this American hero.