borglum5

Memorial Will Endure Until Creation Closes

God created Stone Mountain and none but God can destroy it. In the dawn of Creation it was born; until the end of Creation it will endure. The only measurable span of its existence is from the beginning of time to the end of time. When earth's final cataclysm rends asunder the continents and lifts the oceans from their depths, the last remaining fragment to pass into oblivion will be Stone Mountain, bearing upon its face and holding in its breast the deathless story of Confederate heroism.

On June 18, 1923, work was started on the central group. General Lee was selected as the first to be carved. In honor of the occasion, Governor E. Lee Trinkle of Virginia and members of his staff came to Atlanta to participate with Governor Thomas W. Hardwick of Georgia in the exercises. A great multitude of people, assembled in front of the mountain, heard speeches delivered through an immense brass megaphone from a platform 300 feet below the summit.

Mr. Borglum's first step was to paint on the precipice an outline of the figures of the central group. This was done by means of a powerful projection lantern especially designed and made for this purpose and donated to the Memorial by Edwin Porter of the Precision Machine Company. A small stereopticon slide, containing an outline of the figures, reproduced the lines on the precipice 1,000 feet from the lantern in enormously magnified scale. Men suspended by steel cables with buckets of white paint and wide brushes painted these outlines at night.