Archive for May 2022
long before
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On my way to a restaurant nearby Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, one scuttled through an apparent historic district filled with homes of taste and substance. Several monumental religious structures were also encountered, but given that it had been about seven hours since I’d had a drink of water or anything to eat…
You have to be careful when you’re out doing an all day photowalk in unfamiliar territory. Drink too much, you end up having to piss. When you don’t know the “rules” for where you are, watering the bushes can result in an encounter with the cops. Thereby, it’s smart to restrict the amount of liquid you take in, since it diminishes the amount you then release back into the wild. This can backfire, of course, and sometimes I end up parched. I generally don’t carry bottles of liquid with me, since electronics and water don’t get along well, and water is heavy.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My shot list, which was extensive and ambitious to say the least, was roughly half accomplished at this stage. I found a cool bar/restaurant called “Jack’s Firehouse” directly across the street from the penitentiary, and got there just as it started to rain. I guzzled water, had a pint or two of Yuengling, and ate an amazing bbq brisket sandwich with sides. The staff had just finished their lunch time rush and thereby I received a lot of attention due to the camera equipment, and the series of garrulous personality quirks which I’m famous for.
My server was a young woman who was native to the area, and she filled me in on the stratified socio economic situation here in Philadelphia, her experiences with the de facto “red line” segregation of the city, and also laid out a general nativist point of view on the place which was illuminating. Not the sort of stuff that makes the tourist brochures.
Necessity being the mother of all invention, I also broke one of my core rules and thereby – it was me – I was the guy who took a dump in a bar’s bathroom. Don’t worry, I flushed. Having blown my ballast, refueled, and with a couple of drinks in me – back onto the mean streets of Philly did I scuttle.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Now, during the meal, I had whipped out my notebook and began crossing things off of the shot list. One knew it was impossible to accomplish everything I had sketched into my day before I got off the train – “no Liberty Bell for me,” said I – but given the early arrival of inclement weather ahead of its forecasted interval, I had to adjust.
A quick cab ride saw me heading from the Eastern State Penitentiary area to the shoreline of the Delaware River, and the Benjamin Franklin Bridge.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Benjamin Franklin Bridge is a monster. In terms of massing and scale, this 1926 suspension bridge is reminiscent of the sort of spans you’d commonly observe in a certain superior City found to the north of Philadelphia. It must have been New Jersey’s influence on the Philadelphia people which caused them to reach higher than they normally do.
The rain was spotty, no more than an occasional drizzle at this particular point. My original intention had been to surmount the thing, which overflies the Delaware River. The rain – which was the first indication of an oncoming storm – changed my mind on that one. Instead, I poked around on shore, looking for places where the bridge’s ramps would provide me with a “rain shadow.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Originally built as the “Delaware River Bridge,” this giant is owned and operated by the Delaware River Port Authority of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The span was designated as a “historic place” in 2003, and began to be called the “Benjamin Franklin Bridge over the Delaware River” in 1955. It carries about a hundred thousand vehicle trips a day between Philadelphia and Camden, NJ. There’s 7 lanes of Interstate 676 and US 30 high speed traffic, two bike and pedestrian paths, and a mass transit service that runs on converted street car track ways called the PATCO Speedline. “PATCO” stands for Port Authority Transit Corporation.
The bridge overflies the water at 135.1 feet, has a total length of 9,573 feet, and it’s towers are 385 feet high. The bridge engineer for this gargantua was Leon Moiseff, designer of the superior Manhattan Bridge, found over the far better East River, in a more impressive City called New York.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While hiding from precipitant in the rain shadow of the thing, I spotted a lone tugboat navigating along the Delaware River. Fun!
More 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.
mute granite
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A pre dawn Amtrak ride, some 90 minutes in length, had delivered a scuttling horror – familiar to NYC – to the banks of the Schuylkill River in the city of Philadelphia. America’s consolation prize didn’t disappoint, and a humble narrator had spent a very productive morning and early afternoon photographing the bridges spanning the banks of the Schuylkill and working through an extensive shot list. My last stop along the Schuylkill River Trail is pictured above – the Fairmount Water Works.
This operation was designed in 1812 and principally installed between 1812 and 1815, with work continuing at the site until 1872. Fairmount was Philadelphia’s second attempt at creating a municipal water delivery system. It was operational until 1909, and included a nearby three million gallon reservoir contained in a monumental earthwork, which the Philadelphia Museum of Art now sits atop (looming in the top left background). All of the Neo Classical styling you see is purely facade.
After 1909, the site became the home of the Philadelphia Aquarium (until 1962), and later housed an indoor swimming pool (until 1973). These days, there’s an educational operation there called the “Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center,” and a fancy pants restaurant.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
What really drew my interests here, however, is the Fairmount Dam. A tidal River, much like the East River back home in NYC, the Schuylkill experiences a mix of brackish and fresh water. The Fairmount Dam, completed in 1822, raises the level of the fresh water flowing down to Philly all the way from distant Pottsville and rural Pennsylvania to the north. Above the dam it’s fresh water, below – brackish.
The spill way creates a basin, referred to as the “Schuylkill Pond” by the cheesesteak eaters, which seems to have drawn large numbers of collegiate rowers to its placidity over the centuries. That line of structures on the horizon in the shot above form up “Boathouse Row.” Its seems that local universities including Drexel, Penn, and La Salle have rowing teams based here, and the basin is the setting for multiple rowing regattas.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Simple engineering like this spillway dam is something which I bring up during superfund conversations about my beloved Newtown Creek all the time. Our problem on Newtown Creek is ultimately about “flow” and quickening the pace of water flowing through the channel. I like any solution to this problem which doesn’t require pumps or “adding” energy into the system via mechanical means. This dam functions purely on gravity, and also serves as a fish ladder for critters returning form the sea to lay clutches of eggs upriver.
This was the last entry on my shot list for the Schuylkill River, and it was long past time for a meal and a whole lot of liquid. I was hungry, and thirsty.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One clambered over the artificial hill that the Philadelphia Museum of Art squats upon. Yes, these are “those” steps. The ones from the Rocky movies. Dun dun dun, dun dun dun, dun dan dun de dun…
I’m told that the cheesesteak eaters get all livid if you refer to this area as the “Rocky Steps.” Once again, I will state plainly – I’m from Brooklyn and shit talking Philly is just ingrained in me. I also don’t get upset when cinematic references are made about my own – far superior – City.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While watching tourists discover that running up these steps is actually quite the athletic endeavor, a humble narrator was busily scrolling through a Google map describing eateries and restaurants nearby.
Eastern State Penitentiary was just a few blocks away, and a long line of bars and restaurants which seemed to be open were described as being just across the street from the decommissioned prison.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The camera was converted over from landscape to handheld modality, the tripod tied up to my bag, and a general policing around my person accomplished. One set off to the presumptive northeast, in search of sustenance and refueling.
More tomorrow, 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.
The Newtown Pentacle 