Massive King memorial nearly ready for trip to Mall for assembly - washingtonpost.com: Sometime in the next several weeks, if all goes as planned, 159 huge blocks of granite will be loaded aboard ships in the seaport of Xiamen, China, for an 11,000-mile journey to Washington.
Bound for a site on the Tidal Basin, the cargo includes one block that bears the likeness of Martin Luther King Jr. and the dreams of generations of African Americans.
The other blocks -- which weigh as much as 55 tons each -- make up the rest of the mammoth, three-part sculpture that is the centerpiece of the $120 million memorial to the slain civil rights leader. Assembly is scheduled to begin this year.
More than a decade in the making, finally 'it's here,' said Ed Jackson Jr., the project's executive architect.
The memorial, the first on the Mall honoring an African American, also will be a monumental construction project.
