Simon & Garfunkel – "So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright" (1970)

So long, Frank Lloyd Wright

I can't believe your song is gone so soon

I barely learned the tune

Several years, the staff of Smithsonian magazine published an article titled “28 Places to See Before You Die.”

The sites on their list include both manmade structures (the Pyramids of Giza, the Parthenon, the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal) and natural wonders (Mount Kilimanjaro, the Amazon rain forest, the Great Barrier Reef, the Iguazu Falls).

There’s no way I’ll ever cross most of those sites off my personal “life list” – I’ve never been to Antarctica, Easter Island, the Serengeti desert, or the Yangtze River, and there’s almost zero chance that I ever will visit those places.

In fact, the only place on the list that I had seen before last week was the Grand Canyon.  

Fallingwater

But I recently visited Frank Lloyd Wright’s most iconic building, Fallingwater, which is probably the most surprising of the sites on the Smithsonian magazine’s list.

At first blush, Fallingwater isn’t in the same league as places like Pompeii and Angkor Wat and Machu Picchu.  After all, it’s just a house – and a relatively small house at that.  

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When you tour Fallingwater, you’re struck by the innumerable details that demonstrate Frank Lloyd Wright’s genius.  But the whole of Fallingwater is much greater than the sum of its individual parts.

By definition, buildings demarcate the indoors from the outdoors.  But even when you are indoors at Fallingwater, you somehow are outdoors as well.

One way Wright accomplished this was to forbid curtains, blinds, or other window coverings.    

Another essential element of Fallingwater are the terraces that accompany each of the house’s rooms.

The windows demand that you look outside, while the terraces demand that you go outside.

My bike tour group prepares
to enter Fallingwater

Fallingwater is not a place for catching up on work or watching TV.  It’s a place for gazing at wildflowers in the spring or turning leaves in the fall, and for listening to the murmur of the waterfalls that the house was built above – a murmur that is ever-present regardless of where within Fallingwater you are.

Click here to learn more about Fallingwater.

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A tour of Fallingwater was included in the three-day group biking tour I took part in last week.

At first, I wondered why we were spending the morning walking through Wright’s house instead of riding our bikes.  After all, we had a lot of ground to cover on day two of that trip, and our visit to Fallingwater meant that it would be after noon before we hit the trail.

On day one of our trip, we rode 32 miles before breaking for lunch.  But on day two, we had to ride 32 miles after lunch.

At the Mason-Dixon Line:
I'm in PA, they're in MD

Not only that, but the first several miles of our postprandial route were slightly uphill.

Once we reached the Eastern Continental Divide, it was downhill all the way.  We lost almost 1800 feet of elevation over the next 25 miles.

And while a 1.5% downhill grade may not sound like much, it was enough to enable me to average 15 or 16 mph – about 20% faster than my average speed on more level ground the previous day.  (I spent much of the afternoon in a gear that I had never used before – I had never taken a ride where I could ride fast enough for long enough to get into that gear.)

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The last 116 miles or so of the Great Allegheny Passage (“GAP”) bike trail parallels a working railroad track.  

That railroad line and the bike trail share the 914-foot-long Brush Tunnel, which was built in 1911:

Click here to see a video that shows you what it would be like to be in the tunnel when a train passes through it.

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I was the first of our group to reach Cumberland, MD, where our second day’s ride ended.  I was more motivated than my fellow riders – I had handed one of our guides a cooler full of beer to stick in our luggage trailer that morning, and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on a cold one.  (Maybe two.)

After a hearty meal at an old-fashioned Italian restaurant in downtown Cumberland, it was early to bed so we’d be early to rise the next morning for day three of our group bike tour – which I’ll describe in the next 2 or 3 lines.

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“So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright” was released in 1970 on Simon & Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water album.  It’s not much of a song, but there aren’t a lot of songs about Frank Lloyd Wright to choose from.

Click here to listen to “So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright.”

And click on the link below to buy the song from Amazon: 

Donovan – "There Is a Mountain" (1967)

First, there is a mountain

Then there is no mountain

Then there is

Do you think Donovan was confused when he wrote those lines?  Or maybe high?

Actually, he was neither.  He was simply paraphrasing something that the Buddhist scholar Qingyuan Weixin wrote in the 9th century:

Before I had studied Zen for thirty years, I saw mountains as mountains, and rivers as rivers.  When I arrived at a more intimate knowledge, I came to the point where I saw that mountains are not mountains, and rivers are not rivers.  But now that I have got [Zen's] very substance . . . I see mountains once again as mountains, and rivers once again as rivers.

So ask not whether Donovan was confused or high when he wrote "There Is a Mountain."  Ask instead whether Qingyuan Weixin was confused or high.

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Speaking of getting high, Sugarloaf Mountain (which is a located in Frederick County, Maryland) has an elevation of 1282 feet.  It's a monadnock – an isolated hill or mountain that rises abruptly from the relatively flat land that surrounds it.

Sugarloaf Mountain

Chicago businessman Gordon Strong bought Sugarloaf Mountain and the surrounding land about a hundred years ago. 

In 1925, Strong commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to design something called the "Gordon Strong Automobile Objective," a large circular structure built on the pinnacle of Sugarloaf that would have served as a sightseeing and entertainment destination for day-trippers from Washington and Baltimore.

The Gordon Strong Automobile Objective

The structure's most notable feature was a wrap-around exterior ramp that cars could use to ascend and descend the mountain.  (Wright later used a similar design for the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.)  

At one point, Wright's plans for the building also included a tall spire that was apparently intended to serve as a mooring post for dirigibles.  (Hmmm . . . maybe it was Frank Lloyd Wright that was confused or high.)

The dirigible mooring spire

Strong came to his senses when he saw Wright's plans, and cancelled the project because it would have violated the integrity of the mountaintop.  (You can say that again.)

This infuriated Wright, who promptly sent a nastygram to Strong:

I have given you a noble "archaic" sculptured summit for your mountain.  I should have diddled it away with platforms and seats and spittoons for expectorating businessmen and the flappers that beset them.

Click here to read more about the Gordon Strong Automobile Objective.

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After Gordon Strong retired, he set up a nonprofit corporation (Stronghold, Inc.) to own Sugarloaf Mountain and maintain it in its natural state.

A Sugarloaf Mountain trail

Roughly a quarter of a million people come to Sugarloaf each year to hike or ride horses or mountain bikes on its miles of trails – absolutely free of charge.

I've probably visited Sugarloaf a dozen times since moving to the Washington area.  The trail to the summit of the mountain is fairly steep, but anybody in reasonably good physical condition can get to the top and enjoy the spectacular views of the Potomac River and the Blue Ridge.

On my last visit to Sugarloaf, I didn't take the trail to the summit.  Instead, I hiked on the Yellow Trail, which circles the base of the mountain.

A Yellow Trail marker

Eventually the Yellow Trail intersects with the Blue Trail, which climbs about halfway up the side of the mountain before descending and intersecting with the White Trail.

A Blue Trail/White Trail blaze

Here's the sign that's posted at the entrance to Sugarloaf Mountain:

In case the small size of that photo makes it hard for you to read the sign, here's what it says:

Sugarloaf Mountain is open to the public.  The mountain is privately owned and maintained by Stronghold Incorporated for the public enjoyment of nature.  Stronghold receives no local, state, or federal funding . . .

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A few years ago, the Sugarloaf Mountain Winery opened a short distance away.  It's just what you need after a strenuous day of hiking on the mountain.

Sugarloaf Mountain Winery

If you're looking for a white wine, I recommend the viognier.  If you want a red, go with the cabernet franc.

Click here to listen to "There Is a Mountain," which Donovan released as a single in 1967.

Click below to buy the song from Amazon: