Elbow Room

These lyrics for “America the Beautiful” were written as a poem by Katherine Lee Bates, and were inspired by a trip to the top of Pikes Peak.

The mountain ranges of the United States contain 88 peaks above 14,000’ – the fourteeners.  At 14,115 Pikes Peak (105.0442˚w) is the easternmost of these peaks.  Mount Foraker (151.3992˚w), is the westernmost at 17,400’.  Mount Foraker was named for Ohio senator Joseph B. Foraker who sponsored the Organic Act of 1900.  The Foraker Act, as it was known, established a civilian government in the newly established territory of Puerto Rico, and its capital San Juan.
The San Juan Islands (sharing a name with the Puerto Rican capital) are located off the coast of Washington State, and were the setting for an odd altercation concerning American or British sovereignty over the islands.  The Pig War as it has become known escalated to the point of sending troops to settle the matter, but cooler heads prevailed, and the only casualty of the war was the pig.

The pig’s owner was Charles Griffin, and he shares his last name with the animated Griffin family in Family Guy.  Daughter Meg was originally voiced by Lacey Chabert, who sang the part of young Anastasia in Disney’s Anastasia.  The lyrics for this animated feature were written by Academy Award winner Lynn Ahrens, who early in her career wrote lyrics for the Saturday morning Schoolhouse Rock series.  One of those songs is about westward expansion, and borrowed the words “from sea to shining sea” from Ms. Bates’ poem.  Ahrens’ song was entitled “Elbow Room.”