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Designed by architect John Duncan, the granite and marble structure was completed in 1897 and at the time was the largest mausoleum in North America. Duncan took as his general model the original mausoleum, the tomb of Mausolus at Halicarnassus, one of the seven wonders of the worldThe seven wonders of the world are usually taken to be the seven wonders of the ancient world which were structures built by humans which represented the most impressive achievements of ancient civilizations. The originator of the list is usually given as. A huge public subscription paid for it. Over a million people had attended Grant's funeral parade, held in 1885 and which was seven miles long and featured Confederate and Union generals riding together in open victorias, U.S. President Grover ClevelandGrover Cleveland Order 22nd President 24th President Term of Office March 4, 1885 March 4, 1889 March 4, 1893 March 4, 1897 Followed Chester A. Arthur ( 1885) Benjamin Harrison ( 1893) Succeeded by Benjamin Harrison ( 1889) William McKinley ( 1897) Date o, his cabinet, all the Justices of the Supreme Court, and virtually the entire Congress. The parade for the dedication ceremony of the tomb, held April 27April 27 is the 117th day of the year (118th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 248 days remaining. Events 1124 David becomes King of Scotland. 1296 Battle of Dunbar: The Scots are defeated by Edward I of England. 1509 Pope Julius II places th, 1897, the 75th anniversary of Grant's birth, was almost as large and was headed by President William McKinleyWilliam McKinley Order 25th President Term of Office March 4, 1897 September 14, 1901 Predecessor Grover Cleveland Successor Theodore Roosevelt Date of Birth January 29, 1843 Place of Birth Niles, Ohio Date of Death September 14, 1901 Place of Death Buffa.

"As one by one withdraw the lofty actors

From that great play on history's stage eterne

That lurid, partial act of War and peace -- of old and new contending,

Fought out through wrath, fears, dark dismays, and many a long suspense;

All past -- and since, in countless graves receding, mellowing,

Victors and vanquish'd -- Lincoln's and Lee's -- now thou with them,

Man of the mighty days -- and equal to the days!

Thou from the prairies! -- tangled and many-vein'd and hard has been thy part,

To admiration has it been enacted!"

Duncan's over-ambitious original design, chosen by the Grant Monument Association, included monumental staircases leading down through terraced gardens to a dock on the river, bridging the Hudson Line railroad tracks and providing public access to the shoreline, was scaled back, and the monument itself was reduced in size. The domed space, with commemorative mosaic murals and sculpture, and a large central oculus revealing on the lower level the twin porphyry catafalques of the General's and Mrs Grant's, are quite spectacular examples of purely symbolic Beaux-Arts civic triumphalism. The conception may have been drawn from the catafalque of Napoleon at Les Invalides.

In the late 20th century, the tomb was allowed to decline to a state of severe disrepair, and was considered by many to be an eyesore and a desecration. In the 1990s, after a paper by a Columbia University student was released to the news media and Grant's descendants threatened to remove the remains and have them buried elsewhere, the National Park Service was embarrassed into spending $1.8 million to restore the memorial and to provide for upkeep. When the work was complete, a re-dedication was held on the dedication's centennial, April 27, 1997.

A riddle relating to Grant's Tomb, popularized by Groucho Marx, is "Who is buried in Grant's Tomb?". The traditional answer is, "Nobody." The occupants are entombed, not buried.