The Newtown Pentacle

Wednesday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

A humble narrator crossed the Mason Dixon line again recently, and just shy of the famous borderline between America’s ‘North and South,’ a visit was paid to the Salisbury Viaduct in Pennsylvania’s Somerset County, nearby the Commonwealth’s border with Maryland.

Part of the Great Allegheny Passage trail in modernity, this structure was built by the Western Maryland Railroad and opened to rail traffic in 1912. Abandoned in 1975 by the rail people, it was rehabbed into a bike and pedestrian ‘rail to trail’ which opened for inspection in 1998.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

I had a photographer buddy along with me on this particular day. We had delayed our original plans for this road trip to Maryland by a day, because of a precipitous drop in atmospheric temperature and a concurrent series of storms that manifested as the cold front moved in.

When we piled into the Mobile Oppression Platform (The MOP, aka my, my, my Toyota) back in Pittsburgh the next morning, it was 11 degrees outside.

It had warmed up a bit by the time we arrived at Salisbury Viaduct, about 22 degrees according the MOP’s dashboard display. I was wearing two fleece sweatshirts up top, but had neglected to put on thermal underwear leggings for the roadway interface section of the physical plant.

Told you that I’m an idiot in the mornings, and I should have laid them out the night before as a prophylaxis against my stupidity but there we are. My legs were quite chilly, thereby, but once we started walking…

– photo by Mitch Waxman

It’s pretty rural in this zone, which – I’m told – is the Casselman River Valley. Dairy farms, agricultural fields, highways. That’s the service road of US 219 pictured above, with the main road riding on top of those ramps at top left. It’s right here, if you’re curious or want to take a look around on Google Maps or something. Before you say it, I’ve been to the middle of nowhere – which is in Northern Arizona – and this ain’t it.

We were on our way to other locales, but one such as myself is always drawn to these sorts of places. It’s a liminal space! It’s also 101 feet off the ground, so ‘view.’

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Luckily, a CSX freight train was heading… north?… while I was still within throwing distance of the tracks. Recently, another friend (who is coincidentally the Brother of the guy I was hanging out with on this day), told me that I’ve become a railfan.

My answer to that one was that I no longer have tugboats. What do you all say? Have I transcended to a higher level of nerdom? Too much with the train stuff?

To be honest, I enjoy the challenge of shooting something that’s the size of multiple blocks of houses and moving along at 35mph through less than ideal lighting conditions. T’aint all that easy.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

We proceeded to walk the 1,908 foot span of the Salisbury Viaduct. My friend got busy with his camera in an old grave yard on the other side, whereas I became transfixed by a small dairy farm and what Our Lady of the Pentacle might call ‘Moo Cows.’

We had other places to get to on this day trip and a quick half mile walk back to the MOP, in the crisp winter air, was enacted.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

This spot is 115 miles from Pittsburgh, and 218 miles from Washington D.C. It kisses up against the Western Panhandle of Maryland, at its border with West Virginia. It was also very, very chilly.

Tomorrow, the Mason Dixon is crossed, and Western Maryland visited.

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