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View looking south towards Boston, from the base of the Neoclassical visitors pavilion; The Bunker Hill Monument, built to commemorate the Battle of Bunker Hill, is the first [American] public obelisk. The 221 foot (67 m) granite obelisk was erected between 1827 and 1843 in Charlestown, Massachusetts with granite from Quincy, Massachusetts and conveyed to the site by the first commercial railway in the United States, built specially for that purpose. There are 294 steps to the top. The Bunker Hill Monument is not on Bunker Hill but instead on Breed's Hill, where most of the fighting in the misnamed Battle of Bunker Hill actually took place. The Monument Association, which had purchased the battlefield site, was forced to sell off all but the hill's summit in order to complete the monument. Source: Wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page (accessed 2/11/2008)