It's October 4, 1927 on Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.

60-year-old sculptor Gutson Borglum holds on tight as a wooden platform was lowered down

a cliffside just below the mountain summit.

He peers nervously over the edge, and his stomach clenches as he sees how far above the ground he is.

Three years ago, Gutson was commissioned by the state of South Dakota to create a mountain carving

so grand that tourists will flock from all over the country to see it.

Today, work is about to begin.

Gutson's first task is to prepare his workspace, and that means dynamiting thousands of tons of rock

to create a flat surface.

Gutson picks up a jackhammer from the floor of the platform and positions it carefully against

the ledge jutting out from the floor of the platform and positions it carefully against a ledge jutting out

from the rock face. He braces himself, then engages the clutch of the jackhammer. When he's caught

a deep enough hole into the ledge, Gutson switches the machine off and slides an explosive charge

into the cavity. Once he's satisfied with his work, Gutson gives a shout, and the platform

is hoisted back above the summit. He's glad to be heading back to safety. Gutson's worked in some

extreme environments before, but never one as vertigo-inducing as Mount Rushmore. When he's at the

summit, he and his workers then cover their ears and Gutson detonates the charge.

The transformation of Mount Rushmore has begun.

Over the next few months, Gutson Borglam will blast away another 400,000 tons of rock from

the face of the mountain. Only once this clean canvas has been created will the real work begin.

But the sculpting of Mount Rushmore won't be deemed complete for another 14 years,

and the monument will eventually acquire a very different meaning to the one its creator intended

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