The monument consists of three superimposed truncated pyramids decorated with several sculptures on the sides and an eagle on the tip. The pyramid was designed by Francisco Borbolla and the stone sculptures and its layout by Luis Lelo de Larrea. The copper-and-steel eagle was cast by French animalier Georges Gardet, and the bronze high reliefs were created by Mexican sculptor Jesús Fructuoso Contreras. The eagle was originally intended to be placed on top of the never-completed Federal Legislative Palace—later replaced with the "Monumento a la Revolución" in downtown Mexico City—, while the reliefs were based on those created for the Aztec Palace, presented in the Mexican pavilion of the 1889 Paris Exposition.