A Day Out in Bridgeville: Classic Cars and Local Vendors
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Our Lady of the Pentacle and myself have been spending a bit of time during recent months over in the community of Bridgeville, which is fairly close ‘neighbors’ with Dormont, where HQ is found. Both Bridgeville and Dormont are in a region of Pittsburgh called the ‘South Hills.’
As we’ve been transiting through Bridgeville, signage promising a pre July 4th street fair was noticed, and thereby we decided to check out Bridgeville’s ‘Day on the Avenue’ event.
A classic cars club attended and set their polished up vehicles up on display for we lookie loos. Check out that Oldsmobile. Interior shot here.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The local Fire Dept. deployed, and were handing out little plastic fireman hats to kids. There were all sorts of vendors, selling largely bland food. We did find somebody selling fantastic Italian style sausages, and Our Lady encountered a vendor selling carnivorous plants, so she bought a predator vegetable. Pitcher Plant, apparently.
Back at home later, I caught her killing a fly and then using chopsticks to pick it up and feed its corpse to her new plant.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Check out that Nash!
The new polarizer filter came in really handy on this particular day, allowing me some control over reflections and specularity.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
You could eat off that engine block, it was so clean.
Officially speaking, that’s the most ‘Brooklyn Jewish’ sounding statement that I’ve ever offered here.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
All I could think of when looking at these cars was the current price of gasoline. My first car, which was wrecked in less than a year after I got keys to it, was a 1966 Buick Skylark that got something like thirteen to eighteen miles per gallon of gas.
Can’t imagine what it would cost to operate a muscle car like a 70’s Firebird Trans AM or something, or any of the old ‘American Land Yachts,’ under current fuel pricing. My old skylark dropped an eighth of a tank just speeding up after a light turned green. Sheesh. The Toyota Hybrid I’m driving nowadays gets more than forty one miles to the gallon and it’s twice the size of the Skylark.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The ‘Day on the Avenue’ was a pretty standard street fair, but in contrast to the ones back in NYC’s Astoria, most of the vendor tables were local business related and not some traveling band of grease peddlers and bouncy castles that took over the neighborhood for a day, draining money away from the local shops and businesses before moving on to do the same in somebody else’s community the next day.
Back next week with something different.
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South Side Hollow? and Hey Now!
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One has been working his way along the Monongahela River facing ridge line of Pittsburgh’s Mount Washington for quite a bit now. City Steps, weird undulating roadways, all that are on offer to the curious in this ‘zone.’ I’ve been boxing off and trying to experience all the pathways up here. I’m told there’s lots of unofficial pathways too, which are known to kids from the neighborhood and dearly held.
Basically, my usual plan is to get to a high point and then find a path from the ‘South Side Slopes,’ or Mount Washington, which leads down to the ‘South Side Flats.’ This particular scuttle did begin in the South Side Slopes section, but a bit further east from where I normally walk.
I got started at the intersection of Arlington Avenue and Josephine Street.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As is my habit, a fairly thorough bit of virtual ‘routing and scouting’ had occurred the night before, in the Google Maps app. My compass would be fairly useless in this area, so I had to rely on a list of ‘make a left’ and ‘turn right at’ directions for this leg of things.
There was a particular set of City Steps which I didn’t want to miss. I made it a point of recording the address of a home right next door to them so as not to walk right past them without noticing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The South 30th street steps!
What drew me out in this direction was a video which my failing memory originally thought was from the excellent ‘Time Travel with Tim’ channel on YouTube, but instead it’s a similarly great ‘Cruising Pittsburgh’ production. Check out their video here. I was intrigued by the author’s introduced concept of a ‘South Side Hollow.’
One set his toes firmly in the direction of the steps.
Y’know what happened? I didn’t experience the stairs based PTSD this time around when walking down them. Progress!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At the bottom of those steps you find yourself on a patch of solid ground, which the kids might call ‘Jane Street.’ There’s a lot of electrical infrastructure at the far end of Jane Street, which I imagine was once used to power up the nearby J&L steel mill, located along the riverfront.
Guessing, there.
This is more or less where the elevation of the Norfolk Southern trackage on this side of the river becomes ‘flush’ with the ground level.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Pure serendipity here, as I had just planned on scouting this area for future photo exploration, and then along comes Norfolk Southern #1225.
Hey Now!
This shot was dramatically overexposed, incidentally, but I ‘needed it’ to tell my story. Luckily, I shoot in RAW format, so there’s always a stop or two of ‘wiggle room’ for an exposure. Weird color in the sky, though.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Got this one right. Hey Now!
Back tomorrow with something different.
“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.
A Day in Pittsburgh: Eagles, Bridges, and Lectures
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Your humble narrator was on his way to attend another lecture when these shots were gathered. This time around, the talk would focus in on and discuss a family of Bald Eagles which had been nesting at U.S. Steel’s Irvine Mill, which is in the broader Pittsburgh ‘metro.’
It was a fiendishly hot day, but I took the opportunity to kick my feet around a bit, before the lecture started.
I’ve been attending lots of presentations, lectures, and talks recently. There’s a plethora of such opportunity here in Pittsburgh, mostly either free or ‘nearly’ free. Free and educational? I’m in!
My short walk to the event carried me over the Monongahela River, via the ‘Hot Metal Bridge.’
Also, for this latest batch of posts, I’ve used WordPress’ AI to generate the titles. Normally, it’s just ‘whatever’ up there, figured I’d give this a try.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A former rail bridge that connected the two sides of a steel operation called ‘J and L Steel,’ this span has been converted over to modern use. Above there’s a pedestrian/bike only path, and below is a roadway carrying a not insignificant amount of vehicle traffic.
The lecture I was heading towards would be presented at a hotel which is part of a ‘tech incubator’ area, created on part of the old steel mill’s campus, which is populated by grad students from the big universities and corporatists from every technology company that you could name hoping to catch the ‘bleeding edge’ of technology.
I was early, as is always the case.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
In the distance, the Birmingham Bridge, and a Towboat navigating down the Monongahela River in a southeasterly direction. Your humble narrator was playing around with a new addition to the camera bag on this scuttle, a circular polarizer filter.
The filter ‘straightens out’ light, reduces refraction, and introduces some control over reflectivity. Gives me another opportunity to overly complicate things, as well, so win.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Using my old math, pieced together back on NY Harbor, each one of those seven barges carries the equivalent cargo of around thirty heavy trucks. If you need to move a whole lot of something heavy, best way to do so in terms of ‘spending fuel’ is by water transportation.
I do miss the smell of salt water, as a note.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The ‘Winnie C’ is the Towboat pictured above, and I know little to nothing about the boat other than that I see it fairly often. Presumptively, that black mineral in the barges is coal, but unless you know for sure…
The lecture itself that I would be attending was presented by a former Manager for the Irvine plant, a fellow for whom the care of these eagles nesting on the USS property became a personal project. We were told about the various governmental agencies, Federal and State, which oversaw the nest and helped the company and its employees care for the critters. I should mention, it’s not uncommon to see eagles hereabouts.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At the end of the lecture, he handed out little squishy foam bald eagle toys. I gave mine to Our Lady of the Pentacle when I returned to HQ. She enjoyed it far more than I thought she would.
Back tomorrow with something different – 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.
Three ‘Hey Now’s!’ and done
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Near the end of a fairly long effort, and your humble narrator got to shout ‘Hey Now!’ Once again when CSX #6919 appeared, heading westerly back towards McKees Rocks where I had spent the first half of the day.
My suffering is now non localized, I’d mention. This time last year, my gamey left ankle would have been demanding attention. Now, it’s just the body wide after effect of six months of sitting followed by a year of rehabilitation all focused on that ankle.
The rest of the physical firmament has turned to jelly, and these longer walks I’m involving myself with are designed to increase endurance time. All of the more discrete musculatures involved with walking, in my back in particular, need to be hardened back up.
The immediate goal is to make walking twenty miles with a thirty pound pack hanging off of me ‘normal’ again. Truth be told, can’t currently pull that off. I’m getting fatigued, and my back cramps up, at ten miles.
Upwards and onwards, however, I’ll get there and be glad I did when I do.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
In the meantime, it’s just suffering. Push on, don’t give up, just another thousand steps, go. Luckily, the idea of an icy cold beer motivates. I made it to the brewery, inspected the porcelain, and then ordered myself a single ale and took up position outside while quaffing. My feet were sore, from all the flexing and slapping against the pavement.
I didn’t have to wait too long.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hey Now! CSX #3272 thundered past just as I was swallowing the ‘backwash’ gulp at the bottom of my glass. That’s it, I thought, and resolved to start heading back to HQ. Returned the glass within, straightened out my various straps and pouches, checked the various settings on the camera, and headed towards the T light rail.
Turns out I wasn’t quite done yet.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
CSX #830 appeared, heading easterly. Y’know, I lost count of all the trains I saw this on this particular walk. Hey Now!
That was literally it, for me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s about a ten minute walk to get over to the Station Square T stop, and I just cannot resist cracking out a shot of the Liberty Bridge overflying that concrete factory down there. Can’t do it.
I seem to recall being a sweaty mess during this part of the day.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At Station Square, a Red Line T was boarded.
It’s funny, I’ve heard the locals and even people who work for the service refer to it as ‘The Trolley’ several times. Always bothers me, for some reason.
Back tomorrow with something different – 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.
NYC Trinkets, in Pittsburgh
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s funny, the way you can walk past something over and over without noticing it. Pittsburgh, as you’d imagine, never wants anyone to forget about the steel industry, and the role that this city and its satellites played in the industrial rise of the United States during the 20th century.
Everywhere you go, there’s some totemic representation for the ‘old days.’ Ingot molds, bucket cars, train cabooses, weird pieces of mushroom shaped slag which are installed on streets like art.
As a reminder, I was scuttling along one of the waterfront ‘rail trails’ after having explored a section of McKees Rocks earlier in the day. Eastwards was my direction.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Despite the fact that I walk this stretch at least once every couple of weeks, I had never taken a close look at or really noticed one of these monuments before. Glad I did, as it was a little chunk of ‘the old neighborhood,’ just sitting there in a parking lot.
The thingamabob with the numbers embossed on it to the right is one of the ingot molds mentioned above, whereas the steel girder is a display item, promoting the mill which manufactured the steel for the Hell Gate Bridge, back in Astoria.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Wowza, will this upset a certain bridge obsessed photographer I know from back home, or what? I don’t really discuss my ‘pissing contests’ with other camera/historian types, but my experiences back home with this guy in particular (and the historical society types too), are a big part of why I’ve been so solitary since moving to Pittsburgh at the end of 2022. I really do not like dealing with these people.
Have no idea how long this artifact has just been sitting in a parking lot.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As is my habit, when encountering signage, I record a shot – signage link here. Apparently, this sample of American Bridge Company’s work was shipped about to expositions and trade shoes by the American Bridge Company, another one of Andrew Carnegie’s ventures. In addition to their contributions on Hell Gate, ABC built or worked on a lot of NYC’s minor bridges. Several of their projects were on Newtown Creek, as a matter of fact – notably the Pulaski Bridge.
Neat!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Continuing along, and the Towboat Cori Weiland was observed navigating a huge raft of barges up the Monongahela towards the confluence point of the ‘Three Rivers.’ Black minerals, from the look of it, likely coal or coke.
As always – if I don’t know what something is – for sure – I get general. Yeah, it’s probably coal. Looked like coal. Do I know that as a fact? No? Black minerals, thereby.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One last shot of the Towboat with the central section of Pittsburgh’s ‘Downtown’ area behind it. I owed myself a beer at this stage of the day, and I was pretty close to that brewery with the train tracks… so tomorrow we all get to say ‘Hey Now!’ again.
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 