North Carolina Granite Corporation Quarry Complex

Just outside Mount Airy, North Carolina, a 266-acre industrial complex surrounds what is believed to be the world's largest open-face granite quarry, about a mile long and one-third mile wide. Quarrying began in 1889 after a railroad reached the town, and stone is still lifted from the face using confined black powder gases and the granite's natural expansion. Early buildings remain, including a 1927 frame cutting shed about 660 feet long, a 1930 saw shed, a T-shaped granite blacksmith's shop and a 1928 three-story granite office building with ornamental detail. Granite from the site was used for the Fort Knox Bullion Depository, the Arlington Memorial Bridge, the Wright Brothers Memorial and the Albert Einstein Memorial. Vermont stonecutter J. D. Sargent, company president from 1918 to 1945, built the firm into a national leader. The quarry also shaped Mount Airy's economy and its nickname, the Granite City.