Concord – Motorists traveling south in Franconia Notch may soon be able to glance for a passing moment toward Profile Lake to see five giant granite monoliths, one as high as 20 feet tall, which will appear as the profile of the Old Man of the Mountain.

The memorial design to honor the state's fallen symbol will be half the size of the natural Old Man and will include the heaviest gray granite stone ever quarried in North America.

That and two other elements to the memorial project could be completed by May 2, 2008, in time for the fifth anniversary of the state symbol's collapse. That is, if the estimated $4.8 million needed is raised, said Maura Weston of Concord, chairman of the nonprofit Legacy Fund, which unveiled the design yesterday at the New Hampshire State Library.

It coincided with the Governor and Executive Council's approval of an agreement with the nonprofit group (which includes the Greater Federated Women's Club of New Hampshire, the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests and the Cannon Mountain Advisory Committee) to oversee construction and installation of the new attraction and, eventually, to accept it as a permanent part of Franconia Notch State Park.

George Bald, commissioner of the state Department of Resources and Economic Development, said the project will include an enhanced museum, a Web-based curriculum and a traveling exhibit to honor the symbol.

The memorial pathway and sculpture design is a glorious, physical representation of what is lost, Bald said.

"They hit a home run with the bases loaded. It is really spectacular," he told the governor and executive council of the design.

More than 40 proposals for a memorial were received in 2004, and the team of sculptor Shelly Bradbury and engineer/designer Ron Magers of Essex, Mass., were chosen to develop their vision.

The design has three distinct features all connected by a quarter-mile path leading from what is now the small Old Man Museum in the Park to Profile Lake. Visitors will enter through an archway -- two granite stones that create a gateway and are designed to honor those who worked to preserve the Old Man over the past century.

From there, visitors will first encounter a raised platform that lines up the five huge monoliths to reveal the jagged profile of "The Great Stone Face." It will be visible, as well, from I-93 in the southbound lane but not visible to northbound drivers. Just the five separate stones themselves will be noticeable.

Bradbury and Magers said they chose five stones because the Old Man was made up of five layers of stone that, when seen from a particular angle, formed the visage known around the world and symbolic of the Granite State.

They designed it so it can be illuminated at night, and the designers said they would like to see that happen. There has not been a decision to do that, however. Many years ago, the idea of illuminating the Old Man was considered and rejected.

"We're making a monument," Magers said. "And all monuments are lit," Bradbury noted.

A third element to the design is a series of cannon-shaped steel "profilers" at water's edge that will allow visitors to stand on a spot and line up a series of irregular edges on the steel that form a human profile. As they look up toward the cliffs where the Old Man hung on Cannon Mountain, the steel edges will show them what it looked like.

The design is virtually maintenance free, Bradbury said.

"We were going for the awe factor. The feeling you have when you drive by and get that glimpse. We wanted to create something people would want to stop and explore and increase the number of visitors now going to Franconia Notch," said Magers.

The granite stones themselves that will make up the monument will be monolithic. The largest stone, weighing 120 tons, and the four others will be quarried by Swenson Granite Company at its Rock of Ages quarry in Barre, Vt. They will then be crafted and brought to the site.

They need to come from Vermont because it is there that they have the machinery large enough to pull out a chunk of granite that size, said Kurt Swenson, whose family has been in the granite business in the Granite State since 1883. He said the design calls for this to be the largest single stone every quarried in North America.

"They will be taller than those at Stonehenge in England," he said of several of the stones.

David Nielsen, whose family cared for the Old Man prior to its collapse, considers the mountain itself as a spiritual place.

"I was dead-set against recreating any profile on that mountain," he said "It was created naturally." He said he was extremely pleased with the design for the monument, noting that the designers captured the awe and essence of that passing glimpse motorists once enjoyed.

The Notch has seen a drop in visitors since 2003, he said. "Economically, it was a disaster to Franconia Notch," as well as a tremendous loss for the entire state. "The Old Man is responsible for millions to the state's economy."

Dick Hamilton of Littleton, one of the jury members who selected the design, said the proposal has that "wow!" factor that each of the jurors was looking for. The decision, he said, was unanimous.

Swenson said he, too, was thoroughly pleased with the design, noting some of the other designs did not even include granite, which he couldn't believe.

Van McLeod, commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Cultural Resources, said the design will allow "young people who've never experienced the Old Man" to experience it with those who knew and loved the Great Stone Face.

Bald said there is an expectation that the state will contribute to the monument, but corporations and sponsors are needed to help make the monument a reality. He said the state is "committed with the Legacy Fund to see this happen."