Grant's Tomb, Presidential mausoleum in Morningside Heights, Manhattan, United States.
Grant's Tomb is a mausoleum in Morningside Heights in northern Manhattan, standing in Riverside Park overlooking the Hudson River. The white granite structure shows Doric columns at the entrance, a large rotunda inside, and two sarcophagi of polished red granite in the center of the room.
The structure was completed in 1897, twelve years after the general's death, and later also received his wife Julia. The construction was funded by a public donation campaign in which more than ninety thousand people participated.
The tomb's design drew on the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. Inside, the main level is laid out as a Greek cross, with four barrel-vaulted exhibition spaces opening off a domed central hall. The site is a national memorial and draws about 80,000 visitors a year.
The memorial stands in the median of Riverside Drive at 122nd Street, just east of Riverside Park, and the National Park Service has operated it since 1959. The tomb sits above ground, with the Grants' red-granite sarcophagi in a lower-level crypt reached from the main level. About 80,000 people visit each year.
The two sarcophagi each weigh about eight tons and stand in a circular opening, allowing visitors to look down into them from above. The structure was originally planned as the burial site for a president celebrated across the country as a war hero.
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