[1] Rip Van Winkle weighs 1,400 pounds and was cast in bronze in the Polich Art Works foundry in Newburgh, New York.
Rip Van Winkle is a literary character created by Irving in the short story of the same name who falls asleep in the Catskill Mountains for 20 years after drinking a strange brew.
Washington Irving lived nearby in his home, Sunnyside in Tarrytown, New York and the village of Irvington was named for him in 1854.
[4] Barbe Crowley, then vice president of Irvington's Chamber of Commerce, said of the project, "This will become a tie to our past, a way to keep history alive and visible.
[4] This statue is the second Irving-inspired work in Irvington after the Washington Irving Memorial designed by Daniel Chester French in 1927.