Used to be a plank road…
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Swindell Bridge to North Shore, part three.
Perrysville Avenue, in the ‘Perry Hilltop’ section of the larger Perry South neighborhood in Pittsburgh, is pictured above.
The ‘Perry’ in that ‘naming convention’ is Matthew Calbraith Perry, aka Commodore Perry. He secured the Commodore rank when he was the commanding officer of what we would call the Brooklyn Navy Yard in modernity, back on the East River in NYC.
Famously, Perry fought in the war of 1812, the Mexican-American war in 1845, and ‘opened’ the Ports of Japan to American Mariners, via the usage of ‘gunboat diplomacy.’
Perry’s career would likely be described by members of the Millennial generation as being ‘deeply problematic.’ To others, he’s the epitome of national service and was considered a hero during his lifetime. Perry is also considered to be the ‘father of the steam Navy.’
Anyway, Perry South…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another one of the Pittsburgh neighborhoods that causes no end of apprehension for the locals, this area hosts a fantastic amount of residential architecture predating the 20th century, and is set against a steep hill that leads down to the ‘flat’ flood plain areas surrounding the river which were once the center of an early 20th century annexed municipality called Allegheny City.
In a tale that reminds me a great deal of the one I used to tell about Queens, and Manhattan, and NYC Consolidation, after the annexation things went great for Pittsburgh, but not so great for Allegheny City.
Pittsburgh got historic preservation, and the North Side got urban renewal, and then the highways into Pittsburgh were rammed right through its neighborhoods and cultural centers. Churches, cemeteries, they gotta go, we need highway ramps.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The original path through here is described as having originally been a plank (or Corduroy) road. That’s when you jam cut lumber into the mud, or you create raised timber bridges overflying boggy soils or flowing water. This plank road was barely sufficient for horse drawn wagons, let alone early motor vehicles. After the annexation by Pittsburgh, the plank road was taken out of those private hands which built it – and who also charged a toll – and Pittsburgh ‘normalized’ the route into mapped and ‘macadamized’ streets.
As the road heads up the hill, away from the ‘center’ near Allegheny Commons Park, it is first called ‘Federal Street,’ then ‘Federal Street Extension,’ and it finally transmogrifies into Perrysville Avenue, which then continues on its course to the north and west for a spell.
These shots in today’s post are from the area where ‘Perrysville Avenue’ becomes the ‘Federal Street Extension.’
To continue with my Queens analogy, Jackson Avenue starts in LIC, then becomes Northern Blvd. at Queens Plaza, it continues as such through all of Queens, and then enters Nassau County as Route 25a. It terminates some 73 miles east of the Queens Midtown Tunnel, in Suffolk County. Federal Street/Perrysville Avenue, thereby, is basically a low core Northern Blvd.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There are some absolutely spectacular properties up here. Wow.
There’s also public housing projects and a few apartment buildings with modern stylings. This ‘zone’ has a fierce reputation, as intoned above.
As usual, though, I was the only pedestrian – although a few automobiles and work trucks were observed scooting about, here and there.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Lots and lots of cool old homes up here, including a couple that seemed to have been churches which have been converted over to residences.
Neat.
Have to be haunted, those church ones.
Scuttle, scuttle, scuttle.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The hills get fairly steep as you head south along the Federal Street Extension. Lots of abandoned houses inconvertibly line the street, even here so close to the titular center of the city of Pittsburgh..
The occupied ones seemed to be meticulously cared for, as a note.
My usual measure of a ‘bad’ versus ‘good’ neighborhood involves observation of how people maintain their properties. Overgrown? Boards in a broken window? Junk cars in the yard? ‘Sheiste’ covered in tarps on the porch? All ‘tells’ for a ‘bad’ neighborhood where you should be VERY aware of your surroundings. I saw none of that, at all, on this walk.
Back next week with more.
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Swindell Bridge views, Pittsburgh
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Swindell Bridge to North Shore, part two.
Your humble narrator journeyed over to Pittsburgh’s North Side and the neighborhood of Perry Hilltop, in order to access the pedestrian walkways of the 1930 vintage Swindell Bridge.
The span is in pretty bad shape, with both state and city’s inspectors describing its condition as ‘poor.’ Rust, concrete issues, you name it. When you get up close, you can actually see the various flaws, and they’re fairly terrifying if you know what you’re looking at. I kind of do, and it is.
That hill which the interstate (I-579/279) bends around to the right, and right on the other face of the landform, is where the amazing Rising Main city steps, mentioned a few weeks ago are found.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Blighting of urban areas isn’t accomplished simply due to a high speed road’s actual course just on its own. You’ve also got to factor in the service roads, ramps, and uselessly wooded areas which act as sound dampeners… so there’s also lots and lots of additional concrete, tons of vehicle and pedestrian barriers, and few or zero accommodations for humans who are not within motor vehicles.
Given other recent experiences, which will be discussed in forthcoming posts, I guess the walking public should just be grateful for that single sidewalk which is visible on the access road at the far right.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Personally, I drive the route pictured above maybe once or twice a week. I may bitch and moan about these high speed roads, but I do use them as well, so the hypocrisy is fully on display here. As I always said, the only NYC I knew during my time there was the one that Robert Moses left behind…
It’s a very, very easy thing to exceed the speed limit here, follow the flow of traffic and before you know it – you’re going 20mph over. There is little, if any, Police enforcement of speed limitations on Pittsburgh’s highways, unless it’s a holiday weekend and the cops are doing a ticket blitz – of course.
Sated by this early part of my morning, your humble narrator pointed his toes back towards the path he got in here using.
My plan was to shlep about for the rest of the day, following a colonial era pathway which has been turned into a ‘main drag’ street in modernity. Shouldn’t be too ‘physical,’ I said to myself.
It’s all downhill from here, essentially.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
So, I mentioned that this nearly century old bridge is in pretty lousy condition, right? The bus people aren’t allowed to use it anymore due to weight restrictions, and there’s weight limits for cars and trucks as well. In a couple of spots, concrete jersey barriers are placed, reducing the bridge down to one shared lane.
When I got a bit closer to one of the closed sections where the jersey barriers are, I decided to take a closer look. Holy shmigoley!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The expansion joints! A plate of metal was welded against this expansion joint to keep it from further separating. Holy Monroley!
I’ve seen drawbridges over Superfund Sites in Queens with better joins. Sheiste.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I walked back out to Perrysville Avenue, but this time I went under the Maple Street Bridge, where that high tension power cable had sagged down to about shoulder/head level.
What could go wrong there?
Back tomorrow with more.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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Perry Hilltop and the Swindell Bridge
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This missive is the start of another multi-day series of posts.
Welcome to Perry Hilltop, a plateau neighborhood found in the larger Perry South section on the North Side of Pittsburgh.
This walk, and the series of posts which fell out of it, began right about here. Efforts have been underway to explore Pittsburgh’s ‘North Side,’ which is the former ‘Allegheny City,’ a separate municipality that Pittsburgh annexed at the start of the 20th century.
These photos were gathered on the 9th of April.
As is my habit with such matters, I’ve been following ‘street corridors’ which overlay the past. Modern roads are chosen, obviously, whose path more or less mirrors the historic ones which were cut through the woods and cliff faces.
In the case of this walk, it’s Perrysville Avenue and the Federal Street Extension areas (which you’ll be see in over several incoming posts) which were originally set up as a plank road, between the Allegheny/Ohio River shoreline and less settled areas found up in the hills, with the path ultimately leading to some colonial era Military Fort up north.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The start of this series of postings, however, starts with a tiny bridge which leads to a larger one.
I’m told it’s called the ‘Maple Avenue Bridge,’ a 1929 ‘riveted cantilever truss,’ and I didn’t need to look anything up to tell you that it’s in a deleterious state of repair. There’s even an electrical supply cable sagging down over the thing, hovering right about shoulder height, as measured from when I scuttling along on the roadway’s sidewalk below.
This trip started with one of my one way cab rides from Dormont, which dropped me off right across the street from Maple Avenue Bridge.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
First thing that happened after getting out of the car, some kid walked up to me and asked me if I had any ‘smoke.’
I said ‘nope,’ don’t have anything on me to smoke, and asked him if he was hoping for a cigarette or something. He clarified ‘smoke’ as ‘weed’ and then made clear that he was seeking to sell me some. This misunderstanding and interaction amused both myself and that local entrepreneur. The kid wandered off, whereas I got busy with the camera.
Capitalism, huh?
The 1930 vintage E.H. Swindell (aka East Street) Bridge awaited.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Swindell Bridge is pretty huge, a little over a thousand feet long and five hundred and forty five feet high. It connects two hilltops, spanning the ‘East Street Valley,’ which the I-579 and I-279 high speed roads run through down below.
The Swindell Bridge is – observably – in a horrible state of repair, and a $27 million rehabilitation project is meant to kick in either at the end of this year (2026), or early 2027, which will seek to address its many issues.
As linked to above, they’re going to try and spruce up the Maple Street Bridge as well, and there’s an areal ‘safe streets’ project which is theoretically going to be implemented concurrently with these other projects.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This one looks down from the Swindell Bridge, at the interstate corridor below. As always, I need to state that I love the parabolas, curves, and massing shapes which are created by highway engineers.
Additionally, I hate the historic storyline that resulted in these visually interesting shapes being created. That tale included the demolition of more than 800 homes, and alienating the thousands of families who used to live down there, in the East Street Valley. Bah!
This view look north, although it kind of bends a little bit to the east too.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Looking south/west from the Swindell Bridge, Downtown Pittsburgh just kind of appears, peeking out from behind a hill. It should be mentioned that for the last nearly four years, I’ve been saying that ‘I’ve got to walk over that bridge sometime,’ while referring to the Swindell Bridge, while driving on the ‘Parkway North.’
That’s what the Yinzers call this road.
Check! Another one off my list.
Back tomorrow with more.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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All sideyed, at Conway
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described yesterday, during a lament about a Shell Plant found further north/west along the Ohio River, I had some rather mundane stuff to take care of ‘up here’ – about 25 miles north of Pittsburgh ‘proper.’
I had planned a couple of hours of ‘me time’ into the obligation, and spent about an hour of it lurking on a street called ‘Fourth Avenue’ in Freedom, PA., while staring at the Norfolk Southern Conway Yard.
Positively, there are better angles to see this gargantua of a rail yard from, but killing time is killing time, even if it only offers ‘profile’ shots.
from Wikipedia:
- Freedom is a borough in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, United States, along the Ohio River. The population was 1,496 at the 2020 census.[3] It is 25 miles (40 km) northwest of Pittsburgh and is part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. Originally founded as a steamboat-building town, it later became known for producing oil and caskets in the 20th century.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One was sitting in the car, fairly obviously, and for some reason I love this shot from within the Mobile Oppression Platform’s cabin, accidentally captured while pulling my camera out of its bag.
I’m going to have to do a bunch of research on Conway Yard, and figure out locations for better points of view. Also, have to make sure that the camera is shut off while within its bag.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One set of switcher locomotives caught my eye, as they shuttled lines of train cars from one track to the next. They had an atypical paint job for Norfolk Southern, which usually means that it’s got some ‘one off’ pollution control or fuel saving gizmo at its heart. Something they’ll roll out for politicians or investors to see at press events.
Notably, Conway Yard was once a prized property of the Pennsylvania Rail Road company.
from Wikipedia:
- Conway Yard (also known as Conway Terminal) is a major rail yard located in the boroughs of Conway, Pennsylvania, and Freedom, Pennsylvania, 22 miles (35 km) northwest of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, along the Ohio River. It was the largest freight yard in the world from 1956 until 1980. It is currently owned by Norfolk Southern (NS) and is one of the largest yards in the United States and on the east coast.
- Conway is the only remaining large operation of the four early-20th century PRR yards. NS processes 90,000 to 100,000 cars per month (as of 2003). The site occupies 568 acres, with 181 miles (291 km) of track and a storage capacity of over 11,000 cars and is a hump yard.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I must’ve been hanging around Freedom for about an hour, waiting for something interesting to happen. As I often say, my kind of photography is a whole lot like fishing. You can’t make a fish bite a hook.
So – That’s what Freedom, PA.’s Fourth Avenue looks like, incidentally, directly paralleling the rail yard. These shots were gathered right about here. Nice residential homes, most likely built under the ‘mill town’ model.
All the reading I’ve been doing about coal has kind of bled into me recognizing the sorts of homes which would be offered to miners. I’ve come to be able to recognize these ‘miner houses,’ but there seems to be several prevalent styles of residence which can fit into either description. The ones above are a few notches higher on my ‘size, livability, and quality’ meter than miner houses are.
The latter form are essentially brick boxes with as few a number of windows as the bosses could get away with installing. You’ll see some of those in the near future.
Coal is a fascinating subject, but this post is about Conway, the existence of which is – tangentially speaking – consequential of coal, but there we are. It’s all connected.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A Towboat was navigating down the Ohio River, which was visually interesting, but these shots really disappoint me and I actually considered not running them. It’s that patchwork of horizontal lines. There’s nothing technically wrong with them, it’s just… I dunno.
I’ll definitely be back to this ‘zone’ sometime this summer, but I have a bunch of googling to do first. ‘Rail fanning locations near Conway Yard’ is likely going to be one of my first queries to the Googleplex before I do. I also imagine YouTube is going to come in handy here.
I had to get on with the utter mundanity which had brought me up north, so a last shot or two of those long horizontal lines, with trains in them, were cracked out before firing up the MOP’s engine and hurtling off into space again.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Neat, huh? Good thing I had that green swoosh to frame around. Bah!
Mitch’s rules of composition include: ‘triangles!,’ ‘Z’ shapes, and that whereas one thing in a shot is best, three is cool too, but there should no more than five. Odd is better than even. Establishing shot, medium, up, down, all around, close up. Pay no attention to the man behind the camera, folks, he’s busy.
Back tomorrow with something different.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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Monaca, PA.
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Occasion found your humble narrator, within the confines of his car, alongside the Ohio River, in a municipality called ‘Monaca.’
Atop an island on the Ohio River is found a plastic factory operated by the Shell Corporation. Officially, it’s a ‘cracker plant,’ meaning that raw hydrocarbons enter the place and then get turned into something else via the art of engineers, and chemists.
This plant is a big deal – both economically and environmentally.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m told that the hydrocarbon feedstock which it manipulates emanates from a nearby horizontal drilling/fracked gas operation. The plastics manufactured here are the sort you’d need if you were planning on making plastic soda bottles.
Basically, that’s a giant garbage machine pictured above, with a century long source of raw material and fuel. Gas comes in one side, and landfill destined ‘forever’ plastic future garbage pours out of the other.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Saying that… jobs, jobs, jobs… blame Joe Biden… blah, blah, blah.
The economic impact of the plant on this locality has been profound, which is something you don’t necessarily need to ‘look up’ to witness.
Fewer abandoned homes locally, businesses on the nearby ‘main drag’ are open and not confined to housing ‘vape shops’ or other low hanging retail fruit. The roads are serviceably paved. There was a Police presence.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
People need plastic bottles, to temporarily possess liquids, don’t they? So what if it’ll take centuries in a landfill for them all to break down into different toxins – if at all. Sigh…
Here’s the official/non environmentalist slanted take/POV on Shell’s garbage factory in Pennsylvania:
Via Google’s AI:
The Shell Polymers Monaca plant is a $14 billion petrochemical complex in Beaver County, PA, completed in late 2022. It transforms ethane from shale gas into polyethylene pellets for plastics, drawing controversy over environmental violations, pollution, and a $1.65 billion state tax break. The plant is exploring a potential sale amid financial and environmental concerns.
Key Details About the Plant:
- Location: Potter Township, Beaver County, along the Ohio River near Monaca, PA.
- Operation: Uses an ethane cracker to produce polyethylene pellets (HDPE and LLDPE) for food packaging, industrial products, and consumer goods.
- Construction: Spans 386 acres, with peak construction employing nearly 9,500 workers.
- Environmental Concerns: The plant has experienced multiple air quality violations, high emissions from flaring, and noise/light pollution, leading to concerns from residents and environmental groups.
- Economic Impact: While promising jobs and economic growth, the project is also notable for the massive, 25-year, $1.65 billion state tax credit incentive, which critics have debated.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One had navigated himself in this direction (about 30 miles north of Pittsburgh) for a couple of other, and quite mundane, purposes but since I was ‘in the neighborhood’ – why not stop off to get a few shots?
My usual methodology of scanning the path ahead, through the Google Maps street view technology, had been employed. That activity brought me over to a riverfront park, and a few street ends, here in the community of Monaca.
It was lovely, the park, and it provided sweet points of view on an overcast day. One needed to move on, however, so…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Since I was in ‘the neighborhood’ anyway, a visit was also paid to the gargantuan Conway Rail Yard operated by the Norfolk Southern Railroading outfit, over in a nearby PA. community called Freedom.
More on all that tomorrow.
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The Newtown Pentacle 