Grant's Tomb for kids: Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th President of the United States, died of throat cancer at age 63 on July 23, 1885 in Wilton, New York. He was popular with the American public as a great hero of the Civil War and later as the 18th President of the United States. When the great man died President Grover Cleveland ordered a 30 day nationwide period of mourning.

Grant's Tomb for kids: The Temporary Tomb
Following a private family ceremony Grant's body on a special funeral train and traveled via West Point to New York City. He was laid to rest in 1885 in a temporary tomb at Riverside Park, in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Upper Manhattan in New York City. In 1897 his body was placed into a sarcophagus in Grant's tomb at the General Grant National Memorial which is the largest mausoleum in North America. In 1902 Julia Dent Grant was placed in an identical sarcophagus in the mausoleum beside her husband.

Facts about the Grant's Tomb: Fun Facts for Kids
The widow of the great hero was given the right to select the spot for the last resting-place and it was Julia that decided upon Riverside. History and interesting facts about Grant's Tomb.

The Grant Monument Association (GMA) was established to raise funds to build a National Monument to his memory

On February 4, 1888 the GMA announced a design competition for the mausoleum  “To Artists, Architects, and Sculptors”. The competition was open to Americans and Europeans.

There were 65 contestants and the winning entry was chosen on January 10, 1889

The winner of the competition was an American architect named John Hemenway Duncan (1855 – 1929)

It is an imposing structure, square in shape, 90 feet on each side, and of the Grecian-Doric order.

Exterior: Its granite exterior is modeled after the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus that was built in 350 B.C. for King Mausolus and his wife Artemisia in Halicarnassus (Modern Bodrum, Turkey). It was classical Greek architecture

The classical architecture theme continued and elements of Roman architecture, reflecting the Ionic order, was combined in the design. John H. Duncan used the Tropaeum Alpium for his inspiration. The Tropaeum Alpium  was built by the Romans for the Emperor Augustus to celebrate his victory over the ancient tribes that populated the Alps.

The entrance on the south side is guarded by a portico in double lines of columns, approached by steps seventy feet in width.

The tomb is surmounted at a height of 72 feet with a cornice and parapet, above which is a circular cupola (a dome-like, structure on top of a building), 70 feet in diameter, terminating in a top the shape of a pyramid, which is 280 feet above the Hudson River.

The interior of the structure is of cruciform form (the shape of a cross) 76 feet at its greatest length

The piers of masonry at the corners being connected by arches which form recesses. The arches are 50 feet high, and are s urmounted by an open circular gallery, capped with a paneled dome which is 105 feet above the floor.

Scenes of the General's career are depicted in sculptures

The 8½ ton sarcophagus of brilliant reddish porphyry. Porphyry (Greek meaning "purple") is a deep purple crystallized rock that was prized for monuments and building projects in Imperial Rome.

The crypt rests directly under the centre of the dome, with stairways connecting with the passage surrounding the sarcophagus

The general's remains were transferred to the sarcophagus and placed in the mausoleum on April 17, 1897

The monument was dedicated 10 days later on April 27, 1897, on the 75th-anniversary ceremony of the general's birth on April 27, 1822