The New York City needle was erected in Central Park, just west of (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) on February 22, 1881. It was secured in May 1877 by judge Elbert E. Farman, the then-United States Consul General at Cairo, as a gift from Khedive for the United States remaining a friendly neutral as the European powers -- France and Britain--maneuvered to secure political control of the Egyptian Government. The formidable task of moving the Obelisk from Alexandria to New York is a 240-ton, 68 foot 10 inch, single shaft of red granite from the Assuân (formerly Syene) Quarries at the 1st Cataract of the Nile. The 220-ton granite needle was first shifted from vertical to horizontal, nearly crashing to ground in the process. In August 1879 the movement process was suspended for two months due to local protests and legal challenges. Once those were resolved the obelisk was transported seven miles to Alexandria and then put into the hold of the steamship Dessoug which set sail June 12, 1880. The obelisk was loaded through the ship's hole by rolling it upon cannonballs. The obelisk and its 50-ton pedestal arrived at the Quarantine Station in New York in early July 1880. It took 32 horses hitched in pairs to bring it from the banks of the Hudson River to Central Park, finally arriving on July 20, 1880. The final leg of the journey was made across a specially built trestle bridge from Fifth Avenue to its new home on Greywacke Knoll, just across the drive from the then recently built Metropolitan Museum of Art. It look 112 days from Quarantine Station to arrive at the knoll. A special railroad trestle bridge was built to transport the New York Obelisk from 96th street to its final resting place on Graywacke Knoll in Central Park. The movement was accomplished by pushing the obelisk by steam engine. Jesse B. Anthony, Grand Master of Masons in the State of New York, presided as the cornerstone for the obelisk was laid in place with full Masonic ceremony on October 2, 1880. Over nine thousand Masons paraded up Fifth Avenue from 14th Street to 82nd Street and it was estimated that over fifty thousand spectators lined the parade route. The benediction was presented by R.W. Louis C. Gerstein. The obelisk was righted by a special structure built by Henry Honychurch Gorringe. By the time it finally entered Central Park, it was the dead of winter. The official ceremony for erecting it was January 22, 1881. Today the surface of the stone is heavily weathered, nearly masking the rows of Egyptian hieroglyphs engraved on all sides. Photographs taken near the time the obelisk was erected in the park show that the inscriptions or hieroglyphs, as depicted below with translation, were still quite legible and date first from Thutmosis III and then nearly 300 years later, Ramesses II the Great. The stone had stood in the clear dry Egyptian desert air for nearly 3000 years and had undergone little weathering. In a little more than a century in the climate of New York City, pollution and acid rain have heavily pitted its surfaces. In 2010, Dr. Zahi Hawass, sent an open letter to the president of the Central Park Conservancy and the Mayor of New York City insisting on improved conservation efforts. If they are not able to properly care for the obelisk, he has threatened to "take the necessary steps to bring this precious artifact home and save it from ruin."

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