"On May 14, 1889, the North Carolina Granite Company was founded in Surry County by Thomas Woodroffe. It has been in continuous operation since. Now known as the North Carolina Granite Corporation, it is the world’s largest open-faced granite quarry," the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources says.

"The site has produced granite for many high-rise buildings and even for the Singapore subway system. Its granite has been used to create several notable structures including the Fort Knox Bullion Depository in Kentucky, the Wright Brothers Monument at Kitty Hawk, the Centennial Olympic Plaza in Atlanta and the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.

"The granite is also popular for curbing, especially in northern states that use salt in winter, since salt breaks down concrete curbs in short order. Other uses for the product include tombstones and mausoleums. Waste granite, the small bits that are left over from extraction and from fabrication, is crushed for road construction and landscape use.

"Located on the Ararat River near Mt. Airy, the active quarry covers more than 200 acres and is estimated to have enough granite to continue extracting it at the current rate for 500 more years. The quarry is the source of Mt. Airy’s” Granite City” nickname."

"Granite Quarry Overlook offers an expansive view of the foothills of the Blue Ridge, the piedmont and beyond. The overlook gets its name from the Mount Airy Granite Quarry, which you can glimpse in the distance," the National Park Service says.

"This quarry is the largest open face granite quarry in the world. Local lore says that on a clear day, the quarry can be seen from space! This black and white speckled rock put Mount Airy on the map long before Andy Griffith Show and Mayberry.

"This granite is widely used in construction of mausoleums, statues, buildings, and bridges. The operators of the quarry boast that they could mine the rock for another 500 years and still not reach the bottom."

"Locals in Mount Airy, North Carolina call it “The Rock.” “The Rock” is the world’s largest open face quarry, encompassing territory roughly equivalent to 66 football fields. It’s so massive that it is rumored that astronauts can see “The Rock” as they orbit the Earth. (Mount Airy is called The Granite City for a reason.)," the Polycor Inc. says.

"This quarry has been operating for more than 130 years, pulling some of the world’s finest white granite, stone that is smooth and faultless, among the finest of its kind in the world.

"MOUNT AIRY WHITE GRANITE®is prized nationwide: it has helped build numerous landmarks across America, from the Wright Brothers Memorial at Kitty Hawk, N.C. to the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. It’s so iconic in fact, that tours to the open air quarry are as popular a draw to the town as the Mayberry Days Festival held each year in this legendary hometown of Andy Griffith (you can almost picture Opey or Barney walking down the street)."

"“The principal outcrops of granite in Surry County are found in the northern part of the county near the Virginia line in the vicinity of Mount Airy, the county seat. The granite is exposed in flat surfaced masses in rather an advanced stage of decay immediately to the north and south of Mount Airy where quarrying on an extensive scale has been conducted for some years," the appalachianhistory.net says.

“The North Carolina Granite Corporation’s Mount Airy quarries, located less than 1 mile northeast of Mount Airy, were opened in 1889, and the first shipment of stone from them was made in July 1890. The total shipment of granite from these quarries from 1890, when 135 carloads were shipped, to 1904 when 1,282 carloads were shipped, was 13,232 carloads.

"“Quarrying is confined to a 40 acre tract of continuously exposed granite over the slope and top of a long hill which rises about 125 feet above the valley bottom. The company holds more than 1,200 acres additional of ground over which granite is exposed."

"Not many people realize North Carolina is home to the world’s largest open-faced rock quarry. Or that before Mt. Airy became famous as the inspiration for the iconic town of Mayberry from TV’s “The Andy Griffith Show,” the local rock quarry had long since already put the tiny North Carolina town on the world map," the Only In Your State says.

"The U.S. Gold Depository adjacent to Fort Knox is a prime example. It may be gold on the inside, but the outside is snow white and constructed of granite from right here at the world's largest open-faced quarry. The granite found in this quarry has been used in all sorts of construction projects and found in prominent buildings all across the United States. With the smooth white natural look, it's tough to say no to such a beautiful stone.

"It measures more than a mile long and is at least a half-mile wide. The corporation that owns the quarry predicts there is enough granite here to supply the world for thousands of years. We are lucky to have such a wonderful geological gem right in our own backyard!"

"Mount Airy is a town built on granite, and even its soil is mixed with residue of the stone. Quarries around the area existed as far back as the mid-18th century but were worked only sporadically. The first sale of the land that now comprises the quarry was to Thomas Smith from the state in 1780. The land was largely considered worthless because it could not be farmed. Ownership changed many times over the years and the area was used primarily as a picnic ground," the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History says.

"All that changed with the coming of the railroad in 1888. Thomas Woodroffe (or Woodruff), Sr., an English businessman from Greensboro, purchased the land for $5,000, sold stock for a new granite quarrying business, and began commercial operations in 1889. The business grew rapidly, and in 1910 John D. Sargent was hired as superintendent to manage the quarry’s operations.

"Granite from the 90-acre quarry (the largest open-faced quarry in the world) is pure in color and texture; a piece removed today matches a piece removed a century ago. Mount Airy’s granite has been used for several churches and schools around the area as well as for projects farther afield, such as government buildings in Raleigh, the Arlington Bridge, and the Wright Brothers and Albert Einstein Memorials.

"The granite quarry, “a wonder of nature,” at Flat Rock was one of the main reasons the Atlantic & Yadkin Railroad was constructed to Mount Airy in 1888. The quarry, 2 miles east of Mount Airy, was one of the railroad’s largest customers. Orders for granite came from all over the country. They were easy to fill with over forty acres of granite lying above the surface of the ground and “could not be depleted appreciably in 500 years.”

"North Carolina Granite Corporation Quarry Complex is a historic granite quarry and national historic district located at Mount Airy, Surry County, North Carolina," the Wikipedia says.

"The district encompasses 22 contributing buildings, 1 contributing site, and 8 contributing structures in an area approximately one mile long and 1/3 mile wide. Notable contributing resources include the cutting shed (1927), the office building (1928), and a building originally used as a blacksmith shop.

"It is the world's largest open faced granite quarry. Granite from the quarry was used to build the United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox, the Arlington Memorial Bridge in Washington, the Wright Brothers National Memorial at Kitty Hawk, and the Albert Einstein Memorial in Washington.[2] It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980."

"This quarry covers around 90 acres. It’s a mile long, and has been in operation since 1889. Geological mapping shows the total mass to cover 7 x 4 miles, 6,000 to 8,000 feet deep," The Surry County Genealogical Association says.

"It’s said that granite will be harvested here for hundreds to thousands of years. Granite from this quarry was used to build the National WWII Memorial in Washington, DC, among other monuments and buildings, and there’s a church at the entrance to the quarry that was built with granite from it.

"The quarry can be seen by astronauts from space."

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