General Grant National Memorial, located in Riverside Park near W. 122nd St. and Riverside Drive. New York City.

Popularly known as Grant's Tomb, the memorial to General Grant is one of the largest mausoleums in the world, rising to an imposing 150 feet from a bluff overlooking the Hudson River. Its construction was a mammoth undertaking for the time: hundreds of men worked on the structure between 1892 and 1897, using over 8,000 tons of granite. The great size of the tomb was meant to express the profound admiration Americans felt for the Civil War commander and President. In his time Grant's military accomplishments were compared to those of Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, and Napoleon. As the man credited with saving the nation from dissolution, Grant was propelled to the forefront of America's pantheon of heroes and declared the equal of Washington and Lincoln.
Because of his status as a national hero, most Americans assumed Grant would be buried in Washington, D.C., but his family announced that his remains would be interred in New York City. Grant himself had said he preferred a burial site in St. Louis, Mo., Galena, III., or New York City and had insisted that a place be reserved by his side for his wife Julia.
Immediately after General Grant died, Mayor William Grace offered the family a burial site in New York City, with the assurance that Mrs. Grant could be interred beside her husband.
The funeral was held in New York on August 8,1885, and was one of the most spectacular processions ever staged in America. Buildings all over the city were draped in black, with the most elaborate displays along Broadway, the route of the funeral march. The estimated one million people who turned out for the event crowded sidewalks, filled windows, stood on rooftops, and climbed trees and telephone poles for a view of the procession, which stretched seven miles and took up to five hours to pass. Among the 60,000 marchers were President Grover Cleveland, his cabinet, the justices of the Supreme Court, and virtually the entire Congress.

On Grant Day, April 27, 1897 - the 75th anniversary of his birth - Grant's Tomb was dedicated. Ten days earlier Grant's body had been secretly transferred from the temporary vault to an 81/2-ton red granite sarcophagus in the mausoleum. Crowds again filled the streets as an enormous parade passed beneath a triumphal arch and warships on the Hudson fired salutes. Sitting by President William McKinley and General Porter on a huge grandstand in front of the tomb, Mrs. Grant reviewed the ceremony. She was laid at her husband's side in an identical sarcophagus after her death on December 14, 1902.

Julia Dent Grant
National Park Service
U.S. Department of the Interior
GPO:2000--460-976/00178 Reprint 1997