Two pints worth of ‘Hey Now’
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Triskedecaphobic? Don’t worry, your humble narrator got extremely lucky in terms of timing regarding these shots, so hopefully some of my good fortune will rub off on you during this Friday the 13th.
After a marathon scuttle through the heart of Pittsburgh, one had arrived at the Sly Fox Brewery and the Pittsburgh Subdivision Tracks of the CSX RR outfit in the South Side Flats section. I hadn’t ordered my drink yet, as I was some 40-50 feet over the tracks on a causeway, hovering.
CSX #5464 came through the pass first. I’m told it’s an GE ES44DC model locomotive.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Just as I was fixing to head downstairs and buy a drink, a Towboat was spotted navigating on the Monongahela River and under the Liberty Bridge.
There’s a flight of stairs here, but as is my practice, I decided to audit the elevator’s service instead. I’ve got legit reasons to use the elevator although it’s an elective, mind you, but I think it’s important to see how the ‘other half’ lives.
By the other half, I mean people with mobility issues. Everybody forgets about them, all the time.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Next up was CSX #5456. It was heading ‘away from Ohio.’
I had a lovely stout, if you’re wondering. Tasted almost like licorice.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Also moving ‘away from Ohio,’ the next train was CSX #7422.
This one came through as I was finishing my second pint of stout. That was my limit for the day, so I headed inside and resolved my bill.
Trains come through here in the late afternoon and early evening about every 20-30 minutes. Sometimes it’s an hour. This isn’t a hard rule, just an observation. Isn’t true all the time, but when it is – they just keep on keeping on.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Just as I was leaving the brewery, CSX #5429 hurtled through as well.
I boarded that elevator again, and used it to bring me back up to the causeway, which connects at sidewalk level to the street which leads back to the T station and my ride back home.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is what the brewery looks like, for the curious. Out door tables, train tracks, beer, food, a bathroom… what else could you ask for?
Back next week – at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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Gazing, a ride, and then a ‘hey now’
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This shot involves the ‘gazing’ part from the title. Downtown Pittsburgh, with its shadow casting monoliths.
They don’t seem to do ‘set backs’ out here, so the massing of the upper floors of these towers mirror their bases. This causes a permanent sense of ‘dusk’ for these downtown streets, except for those narrow stripes of sunlight which somehow manage to beam past them. No Bueno.
This walk had been a pretty involved multi hour effort, but I wasn’t done yet.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The T light rail stop at Gateway Center was entered. I used the elevator to get down to the platform level, just to see how well it functioned. Your humble narrator will often go out of his way to see what people who are less abled might be experiencing in these sorts of municipal systems. But for the grace of god…
I boarded the first T that came into the station, and merrily sat down. First time I had sit down since I was moving through Skunk Hollow about two hours prior.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It would only be a few stops on the T, and all in the ‘free zone.’ The light rail runs for free at the City’s core. It’s all very civilized.
The light rail unit made its underground stops, then emerged back onto an elevated causeway at First Avenue Station, whereupon it then proceeded across the Panhandle Bridge spanning the Monongahela River.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The transit service vomited me forth and onto the mean streets of the South Side Flats section, at the Station Square stop. Soon, I was kicking dirt again.
My plan for the rest of my day involved reward for the effort.
The brewery which I haunt is a 15 minute walk from this spot, and I was powerfully thirsty by this point. Hadn’t had a drop of liquid pass my lips since leaving the house, and I’d pretty much walked here from all the way over in East Liberty.
I’ve had to break my usual rule of not carrying water with me on photowalks in Pittsburgh during the summer months, but during the winter months? Not so much. If you drink liquid, you’ll need to pee. That creates a logistical problem, even in a place which routinely deploys Porta-Potties around the city for use as public bathrooms.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The light was pretty great, so I cracked out a shot or two of the Liberty Bridge. This bridge is the ‘other side’ of West Liberty Avenue and the Liberty Tunnels which I showed y’all recently.
A quick call to HQ revealed to Our Lady where I was and served well enough as ‘confirmation of life’ for her to say ‘Have Fun.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It had been about a month since I was able to grab a beer and hang out by the CSX tracks here on the South Side. Missed that.
Tomorrow – lotsa Choo Choo.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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Double time
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The last phases of a recent, and quite long, walk occurred along familiar territory. After debarking the Herron Street Bridge, one ‘hung a left’ onto Pittsburgh’s Penn Avenue. My next destination was off in the distance, where those tall buildings lurk.
As mentioned at the start of this multi week series of posts, the weather was on my side for once. It was fairly warm, with mild winds, and no precipitation was forecast.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A rail trestle, one that connects to the 33rd street rail bridge, was observed on Penn and then one moved on after cataloguing its location. This would be a great spot for getting shots of that ‘white whale’ rail service – the one which I can never seem to reliably catch shots of – the Allegheny Valley RR.
I kept on keeping on.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Some of that new construction cracked me up while walking along. Antics… wonder if this one passed inspection… I’ll bet it did.
This section is kind of a boring walk, with shops and stores selling stuff. Former warehouse buildings, some converted over to U-Haul dealerships or strip clubs, with some still warehouses still functioning according to their built purposes. There’s a few auto mechanic, and services, oriented businesses and at least once every two blocks there’s an opportunity for you to buy some branded Steeler’s ‘merch.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The 40th street Bridge was passed by next.
At this stage, I was mainly carrying the camera rather than wielding it, as I had just passed through this section a mere week before this occasion.
Along the way, conscious arrangements of my feet on the pavement were conducted, vouchsafing the gamey ankle and working on improvements to ‘gait.’ Can’t run before you can walk, all that.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Next up was the 16th street Bridge.
The short time goal for this section of my day involved getting to one of the T stations, to grab a quick ride to the South Side, and thereby save myself a couple of extra miles of walking and gain an hour of daylight.
By the time I got back to HQ, and checked, it seems that I had broken well through that noisome ten mile barrier which has defied me since the orthopedic incident.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Finally, the last bridge on this section of the walk, and it was the approach trestle to the Fort Wayne Rail Bridge. Whew.
Back tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
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Sweets, and sours
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Continuing with a fairly long walk that began a few miles away in Pittsburgh’s East Liberty section and continued towards and through Bloomfield, snaked long the rim of a ravine called Skunk Hollow, and then continued onto Polish Hill which brings us here, to the Herron Avenue Bridge.
As detailed in the link above, this bridge carries pedestrian and vehicle traffic over the East Busway and several railroad rights of way. Apparently, it was closed off for emergency repairs during much of 2025, but then again so was I.
The bridge touches down at the angle between Bloomfield and Polish Hill, The Strip District, and Lawrenceville. I’ve had only topical contact with these places, as of yet.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The bridge provides a front row seat to the former Pittsburgh Brewing Company campus, wherein Iron City brand beer was brewed. If I’m reading the source material correctly, this structure dates back to 1866.
The rail tracks are shiny, indicating regular usage.
Iron City beer is brewed north of Pittsburgh these days, in a converted glass factory. Word has it that there’s a development project underway on this historic landmark, but that it’s been stalled for quite a while.
I am not doing any historic research. None.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The brewery itself seems to be in deleterious condition. One walked back and forth on the bridge for a few minutes, taking in the scene. I’d love to get the camera inside of that place sometime, but that would require me having to engineer the opportunity. I don’t want to talk to anyone anymore, ever again. Lone wolf, me.
I’m sure there’s a way to sneak in, but that just ain’t my style.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This building with the Hershey’s branding confused me, but a quick bit of online sleuthing suggested that this part of the PBC campus was recently used during production of a biopic movie about Milton Hershey, which was recently shot in and around Pittsburgh.
After thoroughly staring at everything, I began to move on.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This shot looks towards Downtown, and the East Busway. The steel truss is the 28th street bridge, which I’ve walked and commented upon in the past. As I keep saying, there’s a systematic method to all this madness.
One headed back down to street level,
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s a long shot of the Herron Street Bridge, in the middle of the shot above, just for the sake of completeness. Not sure what was going on with all that mud and the heavy trucks, but there’s an amazing amount of new construction going on nearby, so it’s probably related to all that.
Back tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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Wiggle time
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Yessir, here we are back on Polish Hill in Pittsburgh, continuing with the longest walk undertaken since the ‘orthopedic incident’ that shattered my left ankle. This one started in the East Liberty section, proceeded across Bloomfield’s Baum Blvd., through Skunk Hollow, and now – so did your humble narrator march on.
There’s a section of the city which is called ‘The Hill District.’ The terminology is usually used, by the TV news and local Government, to refer to a majority African American neighborhood more specifically referred to as ‘the middle hill,’ which mirrors this landform on the other side of Bigelow Blvd. – and this particular prominence i was walking upon is called Polish Hill. I’m ignorant of specifics.
My initial understanding was that – technically – the entire section between downtown and Bloomfield is ‘the Hill District,’ including Polish Hill. It seems my presumption was incorrect, but as I’m still new to Pittsburgh… Saying all that… Polish Hill.
Go ahead, guess… why do you think they call it Polish Hill (Wzgórze)?
Yes, it’s a pickle soup and pierogi zone up here. Na zdrowie!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It is quite steep up here, and the roads are narrow. One became fascinated watching vehicle traffic as it snaked along one of the switch back roads leading down off the hill, in the manner of an inhuman thing.
The housing stock here is disturbingly heterogeneous, as a note.
Must really suck to live up here during snow and winter storm events. This post is being written on January 24th, incidentally, the morning before the ‘Snowpocalypse’ that’s meant to set the country into a deep freeze. Wonder what happened?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is a bus route, it should be mentioned.
Everywhere you look, there’s infrastructure accommodations for the terrain that are built into this neighborhood. Retaining walls, city steps, concrete safety barriers around the sidewalks, fencing. Lots of underground structures as well, I’d imagine.
This place is, in a single word, incredible.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
These downward paths make for great exercise, I should mention.
All of your body weight is being carried in the front of the thighs and calves, and the belly. Several hard to access muscle groups receive a sound flexing. The trick is to not allow yourself to speed up as you’re heading downhill, which requires a bit of conscious muscularity.
My head was swiveling. The brain was categorizing. The camera was whirring. If a creature like myself is capable of joy, I was feeling that.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Long flights of City Steps were observed, but not explored. That’ll be for subsequent visits.
The entire point of this exercise, beyond these photowalks being good cardio, is to continue building my familiarity with the various avenues and byways of Pittsburgh. I drive around a pretty fair amount. It’s an automobile based city, after all. As is often repeated, however: you can’t really ‘see’ or ‘notice’ anything from a car, or even a bike, because you’re moving too fast. Walking speed or even strolling speed, that’s how you want to experience an urban space, or at least I do.
Saying that, as usual, I was literally the only pedestrian in sight for miles at a pop. This is a marked difference from NYC where, even at Newtown Creek, you’d always see people walking to and fro.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My next cross street turn would occur at the bottom of this hill, which would then lead onto a street carried by a bridge overflying one of the busways, and the RR tracks leading to the Amtrak station, and the Fort Wayne Rail Bridge. Exciting stuff, for me at least.
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 