July, 2005 - Nr. 7
German Company Cleans Mount Rushmore
TWIG - A German cleaning equipment manufacturer is co-operating with the National Park Service to clean Mount Rushmore, the South Dakotan landmark.
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| Mount Rushmore is one of the best-known and most beloved monuments in the United States. Photo courtest Kaercher |
The company, Kaercher, aims to remove algae, moss and other organic stains that could damage the underlying rock in the long term by way of bio-corrosion. The cleaning is being performed purely with water, without any chemical supplements.
The cleaning began on July 4 and is scheduled for completion in early August.
With its towering likenesses of American Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln by sculptor Gutzon Borglum, Mount Rushmore is one of the best-known and most beloved monuments in the United States.
It is located near Rapid City, South Dakota, and is superintended by the National Park Service, together with museums and other facilities.
In the past 20 years, Alfred Kaercher GmbH & Co. KG has carried out some 80 cleaning projects on historic monuments, including the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin and the Statue of Christ in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The Colonnades of St. Peter’s Square in Rome were cleaned by the company in 1998 in the largest facade cleaning project ever undertaken on a historic building.
Two years ago, Kaercher specialists removed harmful layers of dirt from the more than 3,300-year-old Colossi of Memnon in Luxor, Upper Egypt.
Cleaning projects in 2004 included the National Library in Athens and the
ancient town and harbor wall in Piraeus as well as other monuments.
Republished with permission from "The Week in Germany"
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