Veiled scuttling
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Squirrel Hill to Oakland…
Locally, the ‘bicycle people’ in Pittsburgh style themselves as ‘bikePGH.’
A non-profit, the group is focusing some of its city-wide efforts on pedestrian concerns this year, and offering walking tours through the various neighborhoods which discuss traffic, safety, and transit issues. A recent excursion occurred in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood, and your humble narrator was in attendance. Nice people, fairly short walk.
After the tour, though, I got all concerned with pedestrian concerns of my own. Getting back to HQ in Dormont!
I leaned into a five mile(ish) scuttle, during which I feared that my life would be snuffed out by some speeding car or random pickup truck no more than three times. Pretty good for Pittsburgh, that.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One cut through a park, which was horrifically nice and terribly well maintained. The burning thermonuclear eye of god itself stared down at me balefully, hurling electromagnetic radiates with hateful intent. The breeze carried waveforms of airborne micro-ballista at me, in the form of needle nosed pollen missiles. My skin hurt for some other reason, maybe it was the pollen, but… For once, I didn’t urgently need to pee. My left eyebrow also hurt for some reason. The ankle was… ahhh feck… I’m all ‘effed up.
The plan was – and I did check the direction on my little compass – to head towards the Monongahela River from the central triangular peninsula of Pittsburgh, but where I was poised is pretty close to the hypotenuse. One had pondered this route the night before, and ‘step one’ would involve heading towards the big colleges, from Squirrel Hill. Specifically I was heading towards the ‘Pitt’ (University of Pittsburgh) and ‘CMU’ (Carnegie Mellon University) zone of the Oakland neighborhood.
Tall buildings that stick up over the tree line, which you can use as navigational landmarks, are indeed a plus. I used to navigate all around NYC by triangulating the World Trade Center, Empire State, and Chrysler buildings.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s a series of ornate bridges, found where the campuses bump up against the park. This particular bridge was closed for construction, but the bike lane remained open and I followed that course.
Can’t close a bike lane, it’s all that truly matters, the bike lane.
One feels very much out of place in this area, as a note. I’m a thousand years old, and horrible to behold in my state of decay. There I walked, scuttling past impossibly young people at the very beginning of their journey.
One must have looked like some sort of ancient mariner, trapped in his endless existential loop, marching around with a camera in a strange city.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Down below, in the park, there’s a set of rail tracks. I did spot a train going through, but couldn’t get a decent shot of it. Fail.
It was right around this point that I realized a new pair of shoes will be needed pretty soon, as too little of the treads on the soles of the ones I’ve been wearing are still extant. There has to be at least 500 to 1,000 miles of wear on the ones I’ve been wearing since last summer.
All this scuttling adds up, Y’know…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On the bridge over the park closest to Pitt’s campus, hundreds of padlocks are on display along the fenceline.
I’m told this is a modern custom for young lovers to engage in, with the symbolism being that they are locked together. I see these all over the place on bridges, and it’s adorable, but apparently also a source of great angst for the engineers who maintain these bridges. Literally hundreds to thousands of pounds of ‘load’ are being inserted into their bridge equations due to this social media trend. Also, that chain link ain’t structural.
People, huh?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There were still miles and miles, and a river, to cross.
One leaned into it, pushed forward, adjusting the various camera and bag straps affixed to my torso as I did. A good moment to check all of my pockets, and confirm that all the small things which are secreted about my person were still there. Wallet, keys, Leatherman, cash, headphones, all the camera stuff, etc.
‘Personal Area Network’ is the underlying concept that guides me when I’m dressing to leave the house. Everything has a function, and a place.
I’ve had to expand that list since living in Pittsburgh, to include a water bottle, and a few other objects which weren’t part of the NYC version of my ‘everyday carry.’ I’m very, very embedded into the ‘EDC’ concept.
Back tomorrow with more.
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A blind man describing what parrots look like
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Continuing with an exploratory scuttle along McNeilly Road in the Pittsburgh area, during which I was avoiding any contact whatsoever with the NFL Draft event happening elsewhere in Pittsburgh.
The Newtown Pentacle time warp is still in effect, btw, as I’ve somehow managed to get way ahead of schedule. These photos are from the 22nd of April, the words you’re reading were written in mid May, and you should be receiving this in late June, if I’ve got my scheduling correct.
A relatively short course of just about two to three miles, found between Route 88/Library Road and Route 19 Truck West Liberty Avenue (with a one block insertion from a street called ‘Pioneer Avenue’), McNeilly is another one of the locales where people dug holes into the earth and then spent 12 hours a day down in the dark with torches on their hats, in the company of company owned donkeys which never saw the light of day.
At the lower right hand corner of the shot above, where all those tires are stacked up behind a fence, there’s a forgotten coal mine portal which was discovered during a 2008 renovation project at the T station.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On the north(ish) side of the street, a series of steep hills lead up to a fairly modern real estate development of suburban style homes on a plateau. I noticed that non-stepped dirt path from ‘below to up’ there. Must be a real joy to walk during the winter, or when it’s raining.
Most of the commercial buildings found on the southerly side of the street are empty, with realtor signs displayed prominently.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I got into another argument with Google’s AI recently.
Gemini insists that this ‘clearly a tributary of Saw Mill Run’ stream is in fact part of the main body of the waterway, which in reality runs along Library Road, and then a section of a road called ‘Saw Mill Run Boulevard.’ Historically speaking, Pennsylvania has been occupied by European Busybodies for centuries, and it is culturally impossible that these tributaries haven’t been assigned individual names by either the Europeans, or the Natives before them. That’s information which likely hasn’t been digitized yet, meaning that to an AI’s POV the name doesn’t exist, and thereby it makes presumptions and pronouncements to try and please a user, even if it’s a bad or incorrect answer. Human children are told to ‘not just make something up if you don’t know an answer.’
No bueno.
I got started on this whole coal quest due to my curiosities about a stream across the street from HQ in Dormont, which seems to not have a name. Despite it being on maps, and being part of larger storm water drainage strategy here in Dormont and the surrounding communities, no name. It appears on maps as ‘a “UNT” or unnamed tributary of Saw Mill Run.’ I’ve been around a LOT of governmental conversations about water, and believe me when I tell you that the stream has a name or at least a number. Aquifers have names, even though they’re found deep in the ground, as an example.
The coal guys litigated mineral rights for every square inch of surface land around here, and then down a thousand feet. It’s IMPOSSIBLE that this water is ‘unnamed.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A lot of the older residential buildings along McNeilly appear to be ‘Miner’s homes,’ a style of dwelling which I mentioned a few posts ago, when discussing Bethel Park. This is a pretty standard model of house, hereabouts, although in modernity additions and renovations have altered the homogeneity once on display. The presence of this model of house, in numbers, indicates that mining used to take place nearby during an era when people walked to work.
McNeilly Road begins angling upwards midway, forming into a fairly gentle but long upslope grade away from ‘down here.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
McNeilly Road continues past a couple of secondary schools, one religious and one public, and is lined with residences for the last mile of its regency.
Now… the plan for the rest of my day was to meet up with Our Lady of the Pentacle, and some friends, at a local brewery to have a drink and listen to a local band play some tunes.
One decided that it might be interesting to see what Google’s Gemini might offer to me as the shortest walking route between ‘here’ and ‘there.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As the title offers, it was like asking a blind man to describe what a parrot looks like, as this was the route it suggested using.
GPS directions in Pittsburgh always require some interpretation because of the terrain, as that factor doesn’t seem to be something that AI’s ‘see.’ The path pictured above does, indeed, go directly to my destination in the shortest sense of ‘how the crow flies,’ but the orthographic overview of the street map doesn’t calculate the hills and valleys – at all.
The real world, and Pittsburgh in particular, is three dimensional.
Y’know how I always offer that I’m safeguarding myself against getting ‘cul-de-sac’d’ while walking about in Pittsburgh by figuring out a route before I take a walk? This is what I mean, and avoid.
I walked a couple of extra blocks, made a left, and followed a ridge line to get to where I was going rather than enduring those ups and downs. Bah!
Back tomorrow with something different.
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McNeilly Station
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another day, another walk in search of extant evidence of coal mining in the South Hills section of Pittsburgh, while avoiding any contact whatsoever with the NFL Draft at the end of April here in Pittsburgh.
This outing required me to transfer lines on the T, which was a new experience for one such as myself. The Red Line was ridden to the South Hills Junction stop, where a Blue Line T unit was boarded. This line runs along the Saw Mill Run waterbody, and to a section I was keen to visit, traveling on tracks that are cantilevered out from a hillside/heavy rail berm which in turn overlooks the busy Route 88/Library Road corridor.
I’ve been doing a bit of reading about coal. It’s been decided that in order to wrap my head around the complexities of Pittsburgh’s history, it’s best to start at the beginning – before glass, iron, or steel. Start where they started, basically.
The latter industries of glass and steel are consequential of the available fuel supply, so that’s where I’m trying to develop some understanding.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This T station is about two or so miles from HQ in Dormont, and is found at a two lane local road’s intersection with Library Road. This is a route which I routinely find myself driving along, called McNeilly Road, but this was the first time I walked it.
This is a tertiary arterial road, connecting traffic from Route 19 Truck/West Liberty Avenue to Route 88/Library Road, and at it’s intersection with Library Road is the T station that is dubbed as ‘McNeilly Station,’
So… coal.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The reason that the freight railway was built through here, and the berm which it rides atop that this T station is cantilevered out from, was coal.
A now defunct coal business’s railroad built this right of way a century ago, with tracks that ultimately led into a rail tunnel punched through the prominence of Mount Washington, about six or seven miles away. The mined fuel would be railroaded out thusly, to the Monongahela River shoreline, and delivered to the riverfront piers and rail yards.
McNeilly Road was another one of the ‘corridors’ where historic coal mining took place in Pittsburgh’s South Hills. In 2008, a nearby property owner was surprised when a renovation project at the T station revealed an open mine portal extant on their property. McNeilly, like nearby Bridgeville, was one of the spots where the coal seams were relatively close to the surface.
The entrance to a mine is called a portal. I learned that.
See… I’m smart, not dumb, like everybody says…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Saw Mill Run waterway snakes along at the base of the elevated station, through concrete channels and then under a 1931 vintage road bridge, at the intersection with Library Road.
All of this coal talk has also made me quite aware of the Saw Mill Run’s ‘watershed.’ Said watershed is highly contaminated with urban street runoff, sewage, and a truly staggering amount of acidic mine water.
No bueno.
Yes, I do plan on returning here with the whole kit and getting all artsy fartsy in the future. Near future, I think.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The metal structure is the trestle which the T runs on, and the masonry structure is part of the forementioned berm which heavy rail uses. It’s quite a monumental structure, I’d add.
Pedestrian concerns seem to be an afterthought in this area.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Notice the sidewalk in the tunnel… sigh.
My plan for the rest of this scuttle was to push up McNeilly Road, from Library Road to West Liberty Avenue. As it turns out, there’s a significant change in elevation between the two sides, something you’re not really aware of while driving along it in a car. Part of Saw Mill Run mirrors this road, flowing behind commercial properties on its (mostly) southern flank.
Back tomorrow with more.
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Overbrook Junction
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described last week, your humble narrator (who cares nothing for the sporting world, and pathologically hates crowds) was avoiding Pittsburgh’s ‘Big Show’ on the North Shore, where the NFL Draft event was playing out.
Weirdo that I am, I decided that it would be a great interval to go look for remnants of large scale coal mining operations that were once extant in the Bethel Park (and here at the tippy tip of Castle Shannon) suburb, and also visit Andy Warhol’s grave.
Today’s post is from the end of that day’s efforts, when I was heading back to HQ via mass transit – specifically on the ‘T’ Light Rail.
Overbrook Junction, thereby, is pictured today.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I should mention, in accordance with a long standing critique I’ve been offering about how bad Pittsburgh people are at signage and predictive wayfinding, that there are actually two platforms here at Overbrook.
One for the Red Line, and one for the Blue and Silver lines. You won’t know that unless you already know that, as the tiny and out of the way signage delineating the two stations has long ago had their pigment faded away by sunlight. Everybody knows where to go…
It has been mentioned that an annnoying cultural ‘custom’ in Pittsburgh is referring to modern locales through the contextual filter of times past, or landmarks which no longer exist, due to the presumption that the person you’re instructing has the same cultural/social background that you do.
Allow me to explain, then, from the perspective of a former Brooklynite, who is often confused by them:
‘Hey, I’ll meet you after lunch, around the corner from where Smith’s used to be, by the statue.’ That’s what the Yinzer might say.
The Brooklyn born response would be:
‘you’re an icehole, I don’t have any ‘effin clue what ‘effin time you eat ‘effin lunch, or where something ‘effin used to be during the ‘effin 1970’s. In the rest of the ‘effin world, we use – y’know- actual clock based ‘effin times, and the same sorts of ‘effin street addresses that the ‘effin Post Office and the rest of the motha ‘effin world does.’
Then you’d hiss at them like a surprised stray cat, and think about maybe punching them in the head to knock some sense loose in there, but don’t. At least I do, the hissing I mean, not the hitting.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s an elevated freight rail trestle nearby, used by the Wheeling & Lake Erie RR outfit, and the road pictured above is a tertiary arterial street which intersects with the secondary arterial Route 88/Library Road nearby, and also heads northwest towards Mount Lebanon, and eventually Dormont, in the other direction. There’s multiple street grade crossings of the T here every hour, where the light rail units exit the station.
I’m absolutely ‘hep’ to get a shot of the W&LE crossing through on that trestle, but haven’t figured out a good time of day to lurk there.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This one looks back at Library Road, a scene which caught my eye for some reason. Again, I’m currently enrapt by this coal story. These areas, where I’m spotting unnatural or artificial shaping of the ground, are on my radar and are something I’m ‘looking for.’
I’m not trying to ‘blow the lid off’ or expose anything hidden, I’m actually just tying to understand. The past harvest of bituminous fuel hereabouts is hardly a secret. The locals really don’t seem to want to talk about it, which is also odd.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While waiting for my ride, I became fascinated by this broken window at the station. What can I say, I’m nearly sixty and I still run after fire trucks while yelling ‘firemen, firemen.’ Shiny.
One roughly shambled over to the correct platform for the Red Line light rail, photographically sated for the moment.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It took about ten or so minutes, after the south bound T pictured above passed by, before a north bound rail set arrived and carried my carcass back to Dormont.
This was the first of several ‘coal explores’ which occurred the week of the NFL Draft.
Back tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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Library Road, or part of it anyway
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As you might recall from recent folderol, your humble narrator was hiding away from the tumult of the NFL Draft, during the last week of April, by hunting around Pittsburgh’s Bethel Park area.
I was looking for remnants of the massive footprint that a series of coal mines once enjoyed in this area. After visiting the grave of Andy Warhol, one’s feet were again pointed at Route 88/Library Road.
This coal thing with me kind of started while driving along this route. ‘It’s a modern road, set up in the 1930’s and 40’s, why is it serpentine?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The answer was – of course – railroading.
Significant trackage used to exist here (beyond the elevated tracks of Wheeling & Lake Erie, pictured above), servicing a series of coal mines found along the Saw Mill Run waterway, which is a quick flowing urban stream. Said waterway should be regarded as a bit more of a ‘watershed,’ if you wanted to get a bit more ‘nitty gritty’ about it.
Saw Mill Run is fed by hundreds of smaller springs and streams, which trickle down out of the steep hills surrounding it. A primary arterial street called ‘Saw Mill Run Blvd.’ more or less shadows its path.
Saw Mill Run has been mentioned here quite a few times.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My rather hazy and still forming picture of things hereabouts suggests that the right of way used by the T light rail runs more or less in the footprint of the defunct Saw Mill Run RR, which carried mined coal to the Ohio River waterfront via a tunnel punched through Mount Washington.
Library Road narrows suddenly, and of course the thing that they didn’t have any room for anymore was sidewalk pavement. One was thereby forced to divert.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Nearly every stage of life is covered by that shot up there – the school’s playground is childhood, handicap parking is for the middle aged, and there’s a cemetery up on the hill. Neat, and very efficient. That’s ‘thinking ahead,’ right there.
Truly, the lengths I went to in the name of avoiding the NFL Draft, held in Pittsburgh in the last week of April, were ‘outré.’
To maintain my pedestrian access to sidewalk pavement, and not get squished by a pickup truck on Library Road, where the sidewalk just disappears I diverted to a small bridge, carrying an intersecting local road over the Saw Mill Run waterway.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Coincidentally, this adjusted path just happened to follow the tracks of the T Light Rail service. Fancy that.
There are three lines currently; Blue, Silver, and Red.
Red is the one which flows through Dormont, where HQ is found. All three terminate to the southeast behind a shopping mall, and the antipode of that spot is found on Pittsburgh’s North Shore, nearby Acrisure Stadium. They’ve got some sort of ‘hop on-hop off’ dealie going on with the fares, which I’m kind of hazy about the rules for, but it seems that when you pay a fare there’s a grace period during which you can transfer onto another T, or a bus, or one of the inclines.
It’s all very confusing. Nobody in Pittsburgh fully explains things. You’re just expected to ‘know.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One was scuttling towards a nearby T station called ‘Overbrook,’ where I’d be able to catch one of the ‘Red’ line rail units back to HQ.
This is a pretty little section of Bethel Park, have to say. There’s quite a few local shops, and I often see people actually walking around here, while I’m driving through. It’s a dichotomy.
I generally end up driving through this section a few times a week during my daily rounds. There’s quite a few interesting spots here, beyond the whole coal angle which I’m currently fascinated by.
Back next week with more, at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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“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 