June 8 – Happy Birthday, Frank Lloyd Wright

Posted on June 8, 2014

On this date in 1867 was born the man who was “the greatest American architect of all time (according to the American Institute of Architects).

...The man who created “the best all-time work of American architecture” (according to an article in Business Week) and more than 1000 other wonderful structures.

Frank Lloyd Wright believed that buildings should be in harmony with their environment as well as with humanity; this belief is called “organic architecture.”

Offices, churches, schools.

Skyscrapers, hotels, museums.

Exteriors, interiors, furniture, stained glass window.

—Wright designed it all.

Here is a bit of (I assume) backwards prophecy:

Once her son had become a famous architect, his mother wrote in her biography that she told people when he was still in her womb that he would grow up to design beautiful buildings, and she says that she decorated his nursery walls with pictures of beautiful cathedrals.

I'm not positive I buy it. But...maybe... If for some reason she really, really wanted her son to be an architect, she might have told him so many times, he decided it was what he wanted, too.

Here's that “best all-time work” – Falling Water:

Not only is it one of the most famous homes ever built, it's been recreated in gingerbread...

…LEGOS...

...and Minecraft.

Learn more about architecture at Kinder Art and Loggia. 

Also on this date:

Upsy Daisy Day 

Astronomer Giovanni Cassini's birthday

World Oceans Day

Children'sDay in the U.S.A. 

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest boards for:

• June holidays
• June birthdays
• Historical anniversaries in June

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

• July holidays
• July birthdays
• Historical anniversaries in July

December 20, 2010

First cantilever railway bridge over Niagara Falls – 1883

On this day in 1883, there was a “load test” and a ceremony for the opening of the Michigan Central Railway Bridge, which linked Niagara Falls, Canada, and Niagara Falls, New York.

There had already been a first crossing, complete with dignitaries, on December 6, followed by a second train with newspaper reporters, and a plaque had already been erected. On the 20, in front of a crowd of more than 10,000 people, ten locomotives pulling twelve loaded gravel cars crossed the bridge going one direction while ten locomotives pulling twelve more loaded gravel cars crossed the bridge going the opposite direction. At 12:08 p.m.—the appointed time for the test—the trains passed each other, and both sets of track were fully occupied. The bridge passed the load test without a hitch, and the trains blew their whistles in celebration.

A banquet for 4,000 invited guests was held on the American side, and the rest of the crowd was allowed to walk back and forth across the bridge. (Actually, this bridge was meant for rail travel only, not for pedestrians, and twenty years later a baseball star running along the bridge to catch up with the train fell off to his death!)

For more on this and other bridges, here is a pictorial history of bridges over Niagara Falls. 

What is a cantilever bridge?

• A cantilever is a beam supported only on one end. Two such cantilevers meet at the center of a cantilever bridge. Below we see the Niagara bridge as it was being built.

• Explore bridge types here. (Scroll down: the second diagram shows a cantilever bridge.) 

• Arguably the most famous cantilever bridge is Scotland's Firth of Forth Bridge.

• Another way cantilevers are used is in architecture. Frank Lloyd Wright's famous house design “Falling Water” uses cantilevers to create overhanging balconies. Check out this architectural wonder here.  (I clicked “Multimedia” and then “Seasonal Tour” for some awesome photos!)