The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-06-28
THE GREATEST MONUMENT
 IN THE WORLDS HISTORY

Boston, June 27.-whether it will ever be erected or not, who knows? It will cost money, a great deal of money, as judged by European standards though nothing alarming when one considers the aggregate of American wealth. The price of three or four battleships or of one first-class university would compass it- perhaps will compass 1t. But the present feature of interest is that the thing is ypossible-~is perfectly feasible engi- neering proposition. Once erected it would stand as monument to the great ness and achievements of the American people from it's birth to the present day, the most tremendous structure of it's kind ever planned by man since the days of the Tower of Babel; the greatest single thing in the world in immensity of design and about the biggest thing in physical dimensions that could ever be projected while building materials are what they are. Indeed you. cannot from cold facts and figures get any adequate Idea of how wonderfully tall and impos- Ing this monument-or, more properly speaking, this symbo-is planned to be; for beside 1t the tallest cathedral spires seem like toothpicks set against q sky scraper; the great dome of St Peters Ebecomes low and inconsequent; the Washington monument and even the old Pyramids themselves shrink to puny things and the slender IFiffel tower ap pears but a fiimsy skeleton. Such is the reconstruction, designed to stand at the national capital. that has been worked out by Massachusetts Institute of Tech nology professor with such completeness nf fua hp erection forthcoming. work on it might begin tomorrow. Even as an architects dream it Is worth reading about, and there is a strong likelihood that the dream will become reality. Here Is the story of its creation as a grandiose de- sign that has already evoked the enthusi- asm of artists like Augustus St. Gaudens and of practical business men in New York and Boston to whom it has been shown.
 Tn matters of design and construction we look still to the English for the most conservative, substantial works, to our selves to the most ingenious inventions; but for sheer structural deeds of daring bold reachings toward the mechanically impossible-give us a Frenchman every time. It is not therefore, altogether a surprise to find that this scheme for the tallest and greatest monument In the world has been evolved and reduced to
 
 Gallic name of Desire Despradelle-a man who for some years has served as chief of the department of architectural design in the Massachusetts Institute of Tech lnology. M Despradelle states that the idea of a great American monument first occurred to him when he saw the magic white city of the Chicago worlds fair. Some extraordinary imposure ought, he Thought. to be placed on the site to mark it after the white city had van- sished. Nothing of the sort, of course, was Sattempted but the longing had been of sufficient strength to put Professor Des- pradelle at work on vast project. From this as a beginning. one can trace the growth of the idea in his mind through long line of Sdesigns that hangs on the walls of his office at the Institute of Technology. The earlier drawings are comparatively small. inclining to the gothic style of architecture, but in them you can note a steady progress to the much larger, simpler. clear-cut design