From the top of the quarry cliffs, one could see the New Jersey suburbs bordered by the New York City skyline.

Mature work
In 1967 Smithson began exploring industrial areas around New Jersey and was fascinated by the sight of dump trucks excavating tons of earth and rock that he described in an essay as the equivalents of the monuments of antiquity. As well as works of art Smithson produced a good deal of theoretical and critical writing including the 2D paper work A Heap of Language which sought to show how writing might become an artwork. Of the work Greg Lindquist professed that it was a "quintessential example of fusing the natural and its human manufacture.

Robert Smithson (January 2 1938–July 20 1973) was an American artist famous for his land art.