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Building the Mountain: Dynamite, Bosun Chairs, and Zero Deaths
At 44:00 · chapter starts 43:35
The construction of Mount Rushmore is one of the great engineering stories of 20th-century America. Around 90% of the rock removal was achieved through dynamite blasting. For the fine detail work, men hung from bosun chairs — essentially wooden garden seats suspended by cables hundreds of feet above the ground — wielding heavy drilling machinery to chisel presidential features into billion-year-old granite. The eye technique is particularly ingenious: Borglum carved a deep recess with a protruding stone that creates an illusion of light and life, giving the faces their uncanny sense of presence. Over 14 years with 400 workers, not one person was killed — one of the most remarkable safety records in American public-works history. There were near-misses, including a cable car brake failure that sent one worker to hospital with a broken bone. The longer-term toll was different: many workers later suffered lung disease from breathing siliceous granite dust.
Around 90% of the rock removal at Mount Rushmore was achieved through dynamite blasting, with fine chiseling only used in the final stages to capture facial details.
Ninety percent of Mount Rushmore was carved by dynamite; the fine detail work was done by men hanging in bosun chairs — wooden garden-seat-style rigs suspended hundreds of feet above the ground. Over 14 years and 400 workers, not a single person was killed on site, though many later suffered lung disease from breathing siliceous granite dust.
Mount Rushmore took 14 years to build with 400 workers using dynamite, yet not a single worker was killed during construction — one of the most remarkable safety records of any major American public works project.
Jefferson was originally planned for Washington's right side, but the granite proved insufficient and the half-carved face had to be blasted off and relocated. Washington's faint lapel outlines are still visible — remnants of a plan to show torsos that never materialised due to funding shortfalls. The mountain is as much a monument to what was abandoned as to what was built.
