Moving the Central Park Obelisk

BERN DIBNER

The necessity of moving the temples at Abu Simbel has focused
world attention on the engineering problems involved. The brilliant
engineering feat of transporting from Alexandria to New York in
iS~!$-8o another famous Egyptian monument is described below. We
print an excerpt from a longer article, '^Moving the Obelisks," origi¬
nally published by the Burndy Library, Inc. A presentation copy of
this publication has been given to Avery Library by the author.

Editor's Note
 

IN THE middle of Central Park in New York stands a tall
stone on a quiet, wooded knoll. It has stood here for 70 years
and in this time has witnessed the neighboring streets swell
in activity from suburban quiet into the busiest thoroughfares of
all time. It has watched great buildings grow from the ground and
it has been dwarfed by their eminence and bulk. It can, in all
truth, say: "1 have witnessed this great change in only one-fiftieth
of my existence, for in my youth in Egypt I have had Moses look
upon my face, and Joseph has paused within my shadow. I have
seen a great city, as great as yours, burn and disappear and I have
stood near the sea for 2000 years to witness another great city
blossom and die. Be not proud, for I shall exist when all this brick
and steel about me has crumbled into dust!"

This stone and others like it have been quarried, cut, engraved
and erected by men for reasons of interest to us. They have been
chiseled, raised, lowered and moved again by methods revealing
to our engineers. Let him who can pause in his busy day to see
what others have done, read further.

It required the passage of some 75 years from the time the
British received their gift of the prone obelisk in Alexandria
before this stood erect once again on the London Embankment.