5. Look for the Four Freedoms symbolized in subtle ways throughout the park
Walking down the paths lined with linden trees, the paving stones look like perfect squares. In fact, each granite paving stone is a cube and measures 4”x4”x4” – a three-dimensional representation of the Four Freedoms embedded in the park’s physical foundation.
Many other elements of the park’s design are significant in such a way, and all were meticulously thought out. For instance, 120 identical Littleleaf linden trees line the triangular lawn of Four Freedoms Park. All of the trees come from a single nursery in New Jersey that had heard rumors of plans for a memorial park and deliberately set aside enough saplings so that the park could be uniformly lined with all the same trees. The granite used to construct the park’s main architecture was also very carefully sourced. All of the stone comes from a single location in Mount Airy, North Carolina – the world’s largest open-faced quarry. The 12,100 tons of granite that was quarried were meticulously carved down into a final 7,700 tons of finished stones.