The Vertical Earth Kilometer is one of a series of four pieces created in the 1970s by artist Walter De Maria. A one-kilometer brass rod was fitted into the ground in Kassel, Germany, with only one end of the two-inch diameter rod flush to the surface and visible. The work asks for viewers’ trust by telling us that the piece extends one full kilometer into the earth, and—along with its sister piece here in Soho, Broken Kilometer—encourages us to question what we think we know about distance.
| 1977 | Walter De Maria installs Vertical Kilometer in Kassel, Germany |
| link | Atlas Obscura - Vertical Kilometer |
| internal | Walter De Maria - Wiki |
| internal | gDoc |