Back to HQ
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After a long walk down a steep hill and a thousand feet of steps, my dogs were barking. Thereby, I was quite pleased when a T light rail train set arrived to ferry me back to HQ, some five miles distant.
This option is pretty much going to not exist for the entire summer, which sucks, but the transit agency people are going to be reconditioning the concrete and rails which the T rides on. Necessary repairs, they say.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s going to be brutal for a lot of people, having this particular rug yanked out from under them. There’s going to be shuttle buses working the route, but a bus ain’t a train, and it’s going to take a longer time to get where you’re going. What are you going to do, fight City Hall?
If this was NYC, and MTA was running the project, the three month ‘T’ outage would probably balloon into five years.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Limping at this point, as all of those steps had triggered my ‘trick left foot,’ I managed to make it back to Dormont where HQ is located. That’s the block where all things Pentacle revolves around these days.
Back next week 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.
A heck of a hill
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After having descended along the German Square stairs as described in prior posts, a humble narrator found himself in Pittsburgh’s South Side Flats neighborhood. This ‘zone’ is pretty urban in character, and ‘old timey’ in terms of its building stock. I’m of the belief that there’s a ‘historic district’ rule which applies to certain sections of the Flats, but as I’m trying to avoid deep dives into historical records these days…
This shot looks towards the Monongahela River and the South Tenth Street Bridge, and that’s one of Duquesne University’s buildings rising out of the bluff on the other side of the river.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Closer to the shoreline, and looking back towards the prominence which I had just descended from – that’s one heck of a hill, ain’t it?
My goal for the remainder of this scuttle involved getting close to the water, and grabbing a pint of beer at that brewery alongside the CSX trackage which has been mentioned several times.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While quaffing my Pilsner, I noticed a towboat navigating the Monongahela and passing under the Liberty Bridge. As you can tell, the sun was in the early stages of setting. Nice light.
I would be taking the T light rail back to HQ, which ain’t really that much of an adventure but hey – I love the novelty of surface based rail transit through an urban space.
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.
Up, down, and around
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Yup… that’s the shot I was hoping for after walking down a thousand feet of steps. Norfolk Southern #1024. It’s an EMD SD70ACe model locomotive if that means anything to you. What warmed the cockles of my heart, however, was what it was hauling. Check it out. I recognize those containers, and so will longtime readers of this publication. You really never can escape NYC, or its trash.
As mentioned yesterday, I’ve sort of been systematically exploring legally available POV’s for this Norfolk Southern Right of Way. Call me timid, but my way has always been to not knowingly trespass. Admittedly, I break this rule a little bit here and there, but otherwise it’s followed as such activity is generally outside of my comfort zone.
I never want to be the guy who needs the Fire Department to come rescue me after falling through a rotting floor or something.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This one looks back up at the last sections of the German Square steps which I had walked about a thousand feet down on from Arlington Avenue.
My friend Tim Fabian has actually photographed all the steps of Pittsburgh, and his photos are available in this book. Personally, I will not be photographing all of the seven hundred and twelve sets of steps Pittsburgh offers. Tim is insane, just ask him.
Suffice to say that going downwards on these steps is a bit less of an athletic undertaking than going up would be, but also as mentioned the path down provided access to less commonly used musculature in the roadway interface and I really felt it in my knees, thighs, and hips.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Norfolk Southern train set, hauling NYC’s garbage, moved westerly through Pittsburgh in the direction of the P.J. McArdle roadway. My day was half over at this point, but there were still a couple of spots in the South Sides Flats area where my desire to point the camera at things could be satisfied.
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.
Slopes to flats
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned yesterday, a humble narrator was recently observed walking down a set of municipal steps here in Pittsburgh which are called – apparently – ‘German Square.’
I found a shot of them from 1933, on display at historicpittsburgh.org. Zillow indicates that this area is a named neighborhood which goes by German Square, and that several quite lovely homes are available here which could be all yours for about 200k. I guess that’s more or less confirmation of the naming convention.
It’s really quirky around here, nice houses but with somewhat forested and steeply graded properties surrounding them. Lovely view too, as you can see both the jail, and Duquesne University, from up here.
This was a pretty cool path to walk, I’d mention, although it ended up being fairly ‘physical,’ if you know what I mean.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One was stretching the ligaments, toning the tendons, and macerating many muscles I didn’t even know I had. I mean, how often do you actually walk down 1,000 feet (about ten stories, that) of steps? It was great exercise, will do it again, but boy oh boy did I feel it the next day. Wow.
At the top of the shot is the Monongahela River, and that yellow bridge in the distance is the South Tenth Street bridge. On both sides of the stairs, heavy brush was observed growing amongst fairly developed deciduous trees. I’m sure that at night, this area is crawling with critters.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On both sides of the stairs, there were wood framed homes, and I was careful to not violate anyone’s privacy while waving the camera about. In a few spots, the plank of concrete which served as a step sat loose in its metal framing and that was a fairly disconcerting experience. Law of averages, I guess.
After a few hundred feet worth of occasionally shifting stairs, a landing was coming up in front of me – in the form of an actual street – where I’d have to walk about a hundred feet eastwards in order to reacquire the steps.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Fritz Street, I’m told, is where this spot is. Or, at least that’s what it’s called to the east of the German Square Steps, to the left (or west) it’s called Windom Street. Honestly, this city is invasion proof. An entire Battalion of enemy soldiers would just get lost into these hills and never be seen again.
The brick colored buildings at the right are the aforementioned city jail, the Liberty Bridge crosses the Monongahela River, and that’s Downtown Pittsburgh rising up to claim its place against the sky.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Just before reaching the ground, the German Square steps feed onto a small bridge which overflies railroad tracks. These tracks are Norfolk Southern’s domain. I’ve been working my way along these tracks for a bit.
Several posts have been offered from the P.J. McArdle roadway in recent weeks, which is just down the tracks west of here. This right of way seems a lot busier than the nearby CSX one, and in recent weeks I’ve been attempting to locate shooting POV locations along it. As you’ll see tomorrow – this is fairly good spot for such endeavors.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ll end this post with the moment of explosive panic which occurred when I realized I had walked myself directly into a cage. Ahhh! Not again,
The good news about this cage, however, was that the chain link fencing which encapsulates the pedestrian path is the ‘old school’ kind with large inch and half diamonds woven into it. It’s sensible to vouchsafe the tracks and trains against somebody tossing something down on a moving train, but most of the more modern fencing you encounter in such places uses a design that incorporates tiny little diamond apertures of maybe a half to three quarters of an inch.
The latter are very difficult to get a photo through. There’s a reason that people cut ‘Bernie Holes’ into such fencing. Pfah!
Back tomorrow with more – at 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.
Twelve hundred steps program
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Famously, the City of Pittsburgh offers hundreds of flights of municipal steps for the usage of the citizenry, which aid pedestrians in navigating the challenging terrain of the place. Recent endeavor saw a humble narrator hire a taxi in order to get to the top of one of the more extreme examples of this sort of infrastructure (not the ones pictured above) and then proceed downward along the rises and runs. In my admittedly limited experience, these stairs are generally compound structures composed of concrete and steel that are set into the steep hillsides.
As a note: rises are the vertical dimension of steps, whereas the runs are the flat parts which you step on.
The neighborhood which I started this scuttle in is called ‘Allentown,’ an area that I’ve visited in the past. Allentown is set into a larger residential ‘zone’ called the ‘South Side Slopes’ which cascade about a thousand feet down along the eastern side of Mount Washington, here in Pittsburgh.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My path carried me past several abandoned homes, which must have been pretty ‘choice’ when they were originally built. The views from this area are pretty spectacular, but it must be a pretty athletic experience living on the edge of a steep slope like this. Imagine carrying your groceries in from the car – there’s a workout, I tell’s ya.
Where I was heading was a set of municipal steps that proceed down the slopes to the South Side Flats while transversing the equivalent horizontal space of no more than a half mile. A passel of municipal density huddles against the southern bank of the Monongahela River down there on flat land along the river – hence ‘Flats.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There used to be ‘T’ street car service here, specifically the Brown Line, but budget cuts associated with the first decade of the 21st century ended all that. The tracks and overhead catenary wires are maintained, however. When there’s work on the T happening further to the south, or in the transit tunnel under Mount Washington which T service normally routes through, the streetcars gets rerouted through this area. Essentially, Arlington Avenue is a back-up.
There’s signs along Arlington Avenue warning truckers to switch gears along this road, warning of a 9-10 degree road grade that these heavy vehicle operators will have to contend with. There’s also the ubiquitous ‘Watch Children’ signs, which generally fill me with an existential dread.
What are these Yinzer kids getting up to, that warrants the installation of signage admonishing passerby to watch them?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is what you see from up top, looking down on the aforementioned density of the South Side Flats. The bridge is the Birmingham Bridge, which had been mentioned here several times.
The ‘Flats’ area is where I’ve spent more than few hours walking around at this point. There’s trails on both sides of the river, which I’ve also pointed the camera at. Way off in the distance, the Cathedral of Learning can be seen jutting up out of the Oakland area, where the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University rule the roost.
One had examined the desired path using Google maps before committing to the walk, and I was looking out for a certain intersection leading to my desired municipal stairway.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There it was, and thusly there I went. The path led down, and northwards, which I intuitively find contraindicative. Another one of my NYC born presumptions is that south is both ‘down’ and flat in geologic character, whereas north is up where the terrain gradiates quickly from hilly to mountainous forests, and then to ones which no one has ever visited to the north and left of Albany.
I know… I know.
I’m also of the opinion that rivers flow south rather than north. It’s odd the way that the brain works. Mine, at least, received early training that indicated certain realities – upstate NY started in Mount Vernon or Yonkers, and it was ‘up there.’
Long Island, as in both Nassau and Suffolk, are ‘the country.’ Also; the Atlantic ocean is always on your right hand side whereas the Pacific is on the left, and somehow NYC sets the standard for ‘correct’ weather in the United States (after Los Angeles) – despite the fact that NYC’s atmospheric temperatures annually fluctuate more than a hundred degrees one way or the other and it’s vulnerable to every sort of atmospheric disturbance there is.
Additionally, Chicago is too cold and Florida too hot. Mustard ONLY goes on a hot dog, and whereas I do make an allowance for Sour Kraut, I think that’s a mistake as it ruins the bun with sogginess.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Walking down steps is pretty low impact and shouldn’t be much of a chore… to continue mentioning things which I believe, without any actual evidence or personal knowledge thereof.
At the end of this scuttle, my legs were absolutely blasted out. The soles of my feet hurt. So did the fronts of my calfs. Globes of inflammation were forming around the knees, and I think I developed a hip problem.
All told, this set of stairs (which are apparently dubbed ‘German Square’) travelled downwards about 1,000 vertical feet before reaching the South Sides Flats area. Holy Moley.
Back tomorrow with more.
“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 