Rising Main, part 2
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Gargantuan, the Rising Main City Steps on Pittsburgh’s North Side, in today’s post.
These are the fourth longest ‘City Steps’ in the city, and they are in a deleterious state of repair. The ground which their foundations rest within is subsiding, sliding, and pulling the staircase to and fro. I tried to illustrate this a few times by looking back up at where I started, so you can see the almost serpentine footprint of the things.
As longtime readers will tell you, I’ve endlessly talked about this weird mental condition regarding stairs that has taken root in my mind, ever since shattering my ankle on a set of steps at home. I freeze up, grasp for dear life at the bannister, and mistrust both my sense of walking balance and the purely mechanical propensity of walking down stairs.
It’s a kind of PTSD, and I’ve been self medicating for the last year with exposure therapy, forcing myself to seek out and expose the senses to this stimuli. It’s working, in terms of ‘normalizing,’ but still quite present.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My phobic intuitions were tantalized, thereby, by this.
At one point, the bannisters on Rising Main are literally fallen away. Some civic minded person seems to have attempted an impromptu repair, using a garden hose.
I really do wish that this was AI.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There you go. Securely attached.
The Rising Main steps connect the Fineview community at their apex to what used to be a thriving neighborhood at the bottom.
More on that is inbound.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Rising Main path is parallel to what looks like an entirely condemned and abandoned roadway called Toboggan Street, which also has its own set of stairs which seem to be in the process of being reclaimed by nature. Several fairly picturesque abandoned houses were seen along the way.
As mentioned above, it’s going to be a while before – or if – I come back here. These steps were causing me no end of anxiety.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
What a shame.
Now, as mentioned yesterday, my puzzlement over this situation led to me ringing up my pal Tim Fabian, who casually threw out the phrase ‘East Street Valley’ during our conversation about my visit to the area.
I then looked that term up, and as it turns out, it refers to a generational road building project that saw an extension of I-79 (locally – I-579) rammed through this neighborhood. This ‘zone,’ as it turns out, used to be a densely populated section of the City of Pittsburgh.
The highway project played out between 1966 and 1989. Here’s that story. A bit of depth to the East Street Valley project will be offered in a subsequent post this week.
As a point of trivia, when discussing the ‘Interstate System,’ an odd numbered road is north/south whereas an even one is east/west. There’s an exception or two to this rule, in various spots around the country, but otherwise…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Y’know, sights like this abandoned building are just candy for wandering photographers. You could draw us in, trapping shutterbugs like moths attracted to a flame. Get enough of us, you’ve got a baseball team.
Saying all that, the devastation and abandonment witnessed in this section of Pittsburgh is – at it turned out – a feature, not a bug.
Back tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
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Rising Main, part 1
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Eighteen stories, vertically speaking, and then just two tenths of a mile horizontally – that’s the size box you’d need for the Rising Main City Steps, which are waiting for you on Pittsburgh’s North Side.
I plan on never walking these steps again, as a note.
During this, and tomorrow’s, post you’ll see why.
Let’s just say that they are structurally compromised, and that the only thing which Rising Main really has going for it in terms of not collapsing is gravity. All the parts of the steps are just piled up on each other in a currently stable fashion, but the land they are set into is shifting and subsiding.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Abandoned homes surround you here.
Curiosity about this apocalyptic condition forced me into learning something, an unwelcome moment which punctured a carefully curated ignorance.
Suffice to say that many of the things I’ve learned about this area will be discussed in forthcoming posts, but the walk opened so many questions to me that I was actually forced to buy a history book, which I will now be forced to read and learn something from.
Farkin bastiches…
Ok… I admit it… I’ve been doing historic research about Pittsburgh. Damn it all, it’s true… it’s all true.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Now that my secret shame is public, I feel freed.
I’m beginning to understand everything now.
Why things are where they are… Y’know, everybody focuses on the 20th century steel stuff, but not on coal extraction and glass manufacturing – both of which happened first, and steel was a consequence of the supply chain network established for glass manufacture and coal/mineral extraction.
Coal… you wouldn’t believe it… parts of Pittsburgh are 90-95% undermined… it’s like mole hills down there. I’m getting ahead of myself, however… that story is still coming into focus…
Steps… the City Steps… Rising Main…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The record is a bit hazy, but apparently these particular steps were installed in 1945. Don’t know if they replaced an earlier set.
The steps do look octogenarian, really.
The horizontal iron bannisters are just barely attached to the concrete sections of steps. In some places, they’ve corroded away entirely, in others, you reach out for one and it sort of pulls towards you, bending away from its posts. I’m certain that these steps haven’t just been sitting out here since the Second World War without any maintenance, but holy smokes they are in lousy condition. Cracks, spalling, subsidence.
The stairs lead down into a ravine. There’s the remnant of a street down there, dubbed Toboggan Street. Several residential buildings can be observed along the path, condemned and collapsing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
How? That’s the question I kept asking myself, along with ‘why’?
Maybe, it’s the resovoir people? There’s a pumping station on the flat section below which needs the land, maybe? Maybe they’re planning something and need these houses out of the way?
Not so much, as it turned out.
I started looking into the matter, and hit a series of dead ends.
Your humble narrator did learn about the distribution of gangland turf on Pittsburgh’s North Side, during the 80’s and 90’s. ‘Back in the day sitch’ as several veterans of that era described a local milieu when crack was king.
In desperation for some sort of understanding of this scenario, I called my pal Tim, who has lived in Pittsburgh for decades. He worked as a real estate guy for a bit, and thereby has a pretty encyclopedic knowledge of Pittsburgh’s neighborhoods. Tim referred to this area as being the ‘East Street Valley,’ and that injection of terminology unlocked some understanding of the entire area for me.
Still had to buy the book.
Coincidentally, Tim is also an accomplished photographer – who shot the photos featured in the very first book about these City Steps from 2004.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Me? I uttered one of my little aphorisms out loud while shooting this photo – ‘It’s all downhill from here,’ and I continued picking my way down the moss and nitre cloaked concrete of these Rising Main steps.
Back tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
The Big Kahuna of City Steps
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Lanark Street, on the north side of Pittsburgh, and looking back towards the Fineview Overlook where this scuttle got started. According to municipal signage, I was standing on ‘Television Hill.’
The reason for that is pretty obvious, if you look at the next photo.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This broadcast antenna is used by two local television stations WPGH-TV (Fox 53) and WPNT (The Point). It was in a large and stoutly fenced off property with lots of ‘no trespassing’ and ‘danger of electrocution’ signs. No bueno.
I underexposed this one by a couple of stops to make that pale sun visible in the cloudy sky.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
So, why was I up here on Television Hill on the ‘ass side’ of the Fineview neighborhood? Glad you asked.
Pittsburgh offers pedestrians a choice of hundreds of sets of ‘City Steps’ to help negotiate the often steep streets within this Appalachian city.
I was heading for the fourth longest set of steps in the city, which offers 371 individual vertical steps that play out over just 2/10ths of a horizontal mile. The vertical distance from the top to bottom of these steps is equivalent to the height of a 15-18 story building. Masochists and sports enthusiasts use these steps for training and running upon, usually in an upward direction. I opted for the downhill experience instead.
That’s where I was heading… and they’re called ‘Rising Main.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The first sets of steps along Rising Main Avenue you see are wooden, constructed from the sort of ‘treated’ lumber which is commonly used for decks and docks. The first house at the corner of Rising Main Avenue looked abandoned and I spotted a condemnation notice on its window. This persists for about a block, ending at a wide intersection.
That’s not so dramatic, you might think. Interesting but…
Then you see the actual Rising Main steps.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One has been fascinated by the City Steps of Pittsburgh since moving here. Remember when I walked down those terrifying metallic steps nearby Duquesne University back in 2023? I’ve been wandering all over the place, using the ones strung through in South Side Slopes section as well. Heck, I’m just getting started out here…
On a side note: let’s say somebody regularly experiences fairly debilitating episodes of PTSD, at the top of staircases due to having suffered an ankle crushing injury in the recent past. In that case, what sort of gentle ‘exposure therapy’ might you recommend in the direction of mending this mental health issue?
18 steep stories of rickety ass steps? Yup, that’s the ticket.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Also, I’d like to mention that I’ve been going back and forth on the title of this post. It’s not my term, ‘Big Kahuna,’ rather that’s what they call these steps locally. Saying that, I’m fairly certain that there’s got to be some form of racism which I’m completely clueless about which describes the origin of the term ‘Kahuna.’ Don’t know. If so, sorry. That’s what they call these steps. The Big Kahuna.
Back next week with more from Rising Main and the North Side of Pittsburgh at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
It’s a fine view, yo.
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There are scuttles, and then there are scuttles.
Most of my walks over the winter months have been constrained by ice and snow, and the still recovering busted ankle situation. Now that the streets are clear again, one feels unbound. Accordingly, a walk which I’ve been desirous of experiencing was finally at hand, and I had all the time in the world to wander about on the 12th of March, a Thursday.
Fineview is this neighborhood’s name. It’s found on Pittsburgh’s extremely hilly north side, and there’s an ‘overlook’ platform there from which to take in and admire the sights. I wasn’t there to look at Pittsburgh from on high, though, I was on a mission.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I did pop out a shot of the ‘Heathside Cottage,’ which was built between 1864 and 1868, and somehow still stands. It’s not remarkable when an important office or governmental structure from the middle 19th century is encountered, it is so when it’s a private home. Wow.
The path at the outset of this one involved a street called ‘Lanark.’
There used to be a trolley/street car which operated on the 12.5% graded Lanark Street, the Route 21–Fineview line, which was extant until 1966. There’s a video on YouTube, with still photos, from the last day of its service – click here for that.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
So… the first thing I learned on this particular day involved transit, which was the beginning of a series of lessons on this day spent in the university of the street.
This scuttle ended up blowing my mind, as it uncovered a series of historic revelations which I had no suspicion about previously. Serendipity!
I am – of course – putting absolutely zero effort into historic research about Pittsburgh – at all… none, zilch.
One prefers to live in total ignorance, and not attempt to understand the terrain that is found all around me. I’d rather that strangers on the TV tell me things to believe and to be afraid of, instead of seeing them for myself and then reading scholarly texts to intuit their actual history…
Saying that, I’ve got two things which I’m currently reading about… crap… I’m not doing any research! Nothing, nein, nada. My ignorance is palpable.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Walking up the hill on the former trolley route of Lanark Street, you encounter a set of raised sidewalks attached to residences. Empty lots begin to manifest soon after this, and signage becomes scant.
My path had been ‘figured out’ before leaving HQ, and I knew – more or less – where I was heading. A few cars passed me by, but there were never more than four or five vehicles. There were zero pedestrians, bike riders, or even people walking dogs – none of that sort of urban stuff – nor were there indications of morbid habitations, or even homeless encampments.
It felt like visiting Salem’s Lot, during the daytime.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One followed the prescribed path, across these raised pavements, and started for a truly unoccupied section up further. There’s some kind of commercial broadcasting operation up here, supposedly there’s a drinking water reservoir up here, and also a whole lot of abandoned houses are found in the direction which I was heading towards.
This section of Pittsburgh, on the North Side of the City, has a ferocious reputation, but I had zero interaction with anybody up here – good or bad. The people on the TV tell me I’m going to get shot while walking around here.
Barbarians abound.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I had no real idea what I was about to see, or what the research I’m definitely not doing afterwards might reveal.
Suffice to say: cheap Pork knuckles, a huge and populous neighborhood, urban renewal horror stories, and a section of the city which Pittsburgh and the PA state highway people pretty much nuked in the name of ‘progress’… that’s what’s found lurking on the other side of that hill.
Come with? Sounds salubrious, don’t it?
Back tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
More car business, and Hey Now!
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned yesterday, one recently had to endure a trip to a mechanic for a recall part replacement, and just a day later there I was waiting for more routine automotive maintenance to occur. My car is an ‘all wheel drive’ model, which necessitates a tire rotation after approximately every 5-6 thousand miles of travel. I had bought a new set of tires at Costco last autumn, and one of the things which sealed the deal as far as the purchase went was their offer of free rotations and flat fixes for the lifetime of the tires. That’s how I ended up in Pittsburgh’s ‘Homestead’ section at nine in the morning at a Costco.
I figured on spending the waiting time buying massive amounts of toilet paper and kitchen towel paper, but was told that my membership level wasn’t allowed within the building until ten. They then tried selling me an upgrade to an ‘executive class’ membership which would allow me in at nine, which I found hilarious.
One walked out of the store, crossed the parking lot towards a set of RR tracks, and that’s when CSX #7226 appeared.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
From the look of things, the people who buy ‘executive’ level membership, which includes an exclusive hour of shopping between nine and ten a.m. to this elite group of Costco customers, looked old enough to remember the Presidency of Roosevelt.
I mean Teddy, not Franklin.
The CSX train, on the other hand, which was hauling a variegated cargo train (cargo boxes, tankers, all that) behind it, is a Millennial in age. Built in 1996 as a ‘CSXT 204 (AC44CW)’ model locomotive, its since been rebuilt as a ‘GE CM44AC.’
Frankly, I have no idea if any of that information is good or bad. I just like taking pictures of trains.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A fairly rare three image post is on offer today.
Tomorrow begins another one of the multi-day ‘adventures’ series of posts, and explores a part of Pittsburgh which I haven’t seen much of.
Come with?
Back tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
The Newtown Pentacle 