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.
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Hey Now’s! and a raptor
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Continuing with a fairly epic scuttle, one which began in McKees Rocks, and after a quick bus ride, continues with Pittsburgh’s South Side Flats neighborhood along the Monongahela River shoreline.
I was standing on the pedestrian walkway incorporated into the Duquesne Incline, which provided for an elevated POV over the scene.
Hey Now! I don’t see CSX doing this sort of thing very often around these parts, they must have been pretty busy on this particular day. Normally, one set of tracks heads east and the other goes west, but on this day – both tracks were focusing locomotive traffic to the east.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
CSX #804 was being held in place while the other train rolled through.
Me? I was just ‘waiting for stuff to happen’ while enjoying a rare elevated point of view over the scene.
There’s a very familiar ‘rail trail’ down there which I scuttle along all the time. I’m always told that the South Side is ‘boring,’ but there’s frequent rail traffic on display here all the time!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That first train which passed through, coincidentally, was CSX #833.
Hey Now!
Cannot resist the compositions available along this stretch.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was hunting around a half mile away, nearby the confluence of the three rivers, but I’ve got a zoom lens. That’s a bald eagle, heading towards the left of the shot. The ‘whatzit’ in the lower left is part of Acrisure Stadium, where the Pittsburgh Steelers live.
Serendipity, that’s what that is.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Down on the ground level, and standing on the trail, I got into position just as CSX #804 began to move. Hey Now?
A reminder is offered that the Newtown Pentacle time warp has intensified. If my scheduling is correct, you’re receiving this in the third week of August, whereas the photos were captured at the start of July and these words typed out during the second week of July.
Hope that we all had an ok summer.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
CSX would be a featured player in my late afternoon. That will all be disbursed next week, however.
As a note, the one above isn’t ‘perfect’ but it’s a shot I’m working on getting right. I’m always trying to catch glimpses of the people working inside these giant machines.
Back next week with more from Pittsburgh – at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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America’s deadliest wild animal
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described yesterday, one had a bit of time to wait until a CSX Freight train cleared through, an interval spent organizing his immediacies.
Camera straps, backpack stuff, straightening out my shirt so the buttons descend in a neat fashion rather than being pulled over to one side by the camera strap – all that sort of stuff. I exist in a web of straps.
Once the train passed through, I was free as a bird again. Hooray.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
America’s deadliest wild animals, however, had wandered onto the vehicular road bridge over Chartiers Creek. Traffic had halted as these two rather confused fawns were trying to figure out how to escape the pickle they found themselves in.
I helped by waving my left hand in the direction they should go and yelling something like ‘Bip, bip, bip’ at them. It doesn’t work with Moe the Dog, but I figured I’d give it a shot here.
One can report from a scientific ‘trial and error’ experiment, on two distinct species of animal, that yelling ‘Bip, bip, bip’ and gesturing does not translate well into either the doggish or deermerican languages.
As an aside, I am increasingly convinced that whomever it was that took care of Moe when he was a puppy, way before we adopted him, spoke Spanish around him. He always responds energetically when I tell him ‘tu estas un loco perro’ or say ‘Oye, tu estas un Moe.’
Maybe that’s the answer… my lunatic dog might be bilingual.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I always think to myself that deer look like giant mice. I’m an idiot.
Luckily, these spirits of the forest decided to skedaddle, and ran down the shoreline to Chartiers Creek, which is kind of where they belong.
Deer don’t attack humans, necessarily, and they certainly aren’t predating us. Instead, the 400 Americans who die (on average) every year due to interacting with these deer, the country’s most dangerous wild animals, do so due to car crashes.
Not bears, mountain lions, or even ticks. Deer. Deer kill more Americans than any other critter.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One last shot looking back at McKees Rocks.
Now, I was in the grip of a familiar problem. The section of Carson Street between McKees Rocks and my next destination is a de facto highway, and ‘no bueno’ as far as walking it. There are sidewalks for most of the way, but with heavy traffic moving along it, often at double the speed limit. Last time I was here, I summoned a cab.
This time…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I finally rode a bus in Pittsburgh, lords and ladies.
Nothing extraordinary about it, it was just a ten minute bus ride, but it ‘got me out of dutch’ and deposited the physical firmament at a spot where I wasn’t quite as likely to get squished by a pickup truck.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The particular bus stop I debarked the vehicle at was the one found alongside the Duquesne Incline, whereupon a pedestrian ramp over Carson Street was utilized for this chicken to get to the other side of the road. My day was just getting started, after all…
Back tomorrow with more.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
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Chartiers Creek and a ‘Hey Now!’
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Continuing with an interesting scuttle perpetrated in McKees Rocks, a Borough of Allegheny County found directly across the Ohio River from Pittsburgh’s ‘North Side.’
The blue bridge carries vehicular traffic to and from McKees Rocks’ romantically named ‘Intermodal Way’ to Carson Street, which is the main drag of the Monongahela River shoreline that allows traffic to flow to the east through the ‘South Side,’ where Carson Street eventually devolves into a de facto highway.
Additionally, the Newtown Pentacle time warp is still very much in effect, with these photos having been captured in middle June, and these words being written early in July.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Off in the distance, St. Mary’s RC church, which had served as my landmark from the Wind Gap Bridge and then in the industrial zone found along Thompson Avenue and Furnace Street Extension.
One maneuvered himself to a certain spot, where I could wait for it.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Chartiers Creek itself, looking back at the vehicle bridge that I had been standing on in yesterday’s post. After shooting this one I headed over to that certain spot, and checked my camera settings.
It’s a lot like fishing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Luckily, I caught a bite!
Hey Now!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s CSX #5419, and it was pulling a long line of tanker cars behind it. There was a secondary ‘DPU’ locomotive in the line, which adds extra horsepower to the equation. The train was traveling easterly.
Yeah, I was in a safe spot and all that. Zoom lens.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As you see, I had a few minutes to wait before I could resume my activities. The opportunity was taken to drink a glug of water from that bottle I’ve added to the pack, adjust the various straps attached to the bag and camera, and straighten out my clothing. Got to stay organized.
Back tomorrow with America’s Deadliest Wild Animal.
“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.
Get a lil bit lower now…
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
McKees Rocks’ Thompson Avenue ends suddenly, and there’s an intersection leading back out towards the Monongahela River side of the municipality that I followed instead. Heck yeah, I’ll be coming back here, but next time around I’m going to drive so I don’t have to shlep 30 pounds of camera gear on my back.
I really, really would like to get a shot of train coming around that bend.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’d also like to get a shot of train moving past St. Mary’s RC church nearby that bend. The church had been acting as my landmark, while moving around an unfamiliar corridor. My predetermined path, which had been decided on using the Google Maps app in advance, was sketched out in a turn by turn manner in a document on my phone’s ‘Notes’ app. The directions demanded a right turn here, onto ‘Furnace Street Extension.’
After all these years of wandering analysis, I’ve developed a certain perception about urban spaces which allows me to ‘ball park’ their age. How the streets are designed, the sorts of sidewalks (or presence of sidewalks at all) which are offered, HVAC systems or lack thereof. A big ‘tell’ is also whether or not an employee parking lot was part of the plan, when the place was built.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Furnace Street Extension in McKees Rocks, where the building stock I encountered suggests – to me at least – the 1970’s and 80’s with a smidge of ultra modern 2010’s investment thrown in. Saying that, the pathway itself is ancient by Pittsburgh standards. There used to be a number of Iron Mills found here historically in the 19th and early 20th centuries, hence the name ‘Furnace Street.’ They called iron mills ‘furnaces,’ back in the day.
Most of the land use in modernity is light industrial and warehousing. There’s a huge self-storage facility nearby, and a nightlife venue at the far end of the street called the ‘Roxian Theatre.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I tell you, New Yorkers, Pittsburgh is like heaven when and if the subject of public lavatories comes up. You can just ask people in shops to use the ‘terlet’ here, and they’ll let you. They look at you like you’ve got two heads for being grateful about it, too. You encounter Porta-Potties at every public event, and park, and sometimes there’ll just be a line of them sitting there and ready for use on the street. Nepenthe.
Amazing that it doesn’t cost Pittsburgh millions to build a single park bathroom, which is only open for a couple of non contiguous hours every third Tuesday in months that begin with a ‘J’.
Looking directly at you, NYC Parks.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One found himself back ‘out’ onto the more conventionally travelled sections of McKees Rocks, and soon I was standing on a fairly stout vehicle bridge overflying Chartiers Creek. A bunch of people were doing some sort of construction job that was centered around a utility pole.
A quick street crossing of a disconcerting intersection occurred, and I got to the other side of the bridge.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s Chartiers Creek again, with a vehicular (blue) and rail (rusty brown) set of bridges spanning it in the distance. Just on the other side of the rail bridge is Chartiers Creek’s outfall into the Ohio River.
Back tomorrow with some Hey Now!
“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 