Existential scuttling
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Those old Christmas season cartoons – the stop motion animation ones from Rankin Bass – they had one heck of a sound track, if you ask me. The Heat/Cold Miser song, in particular, as well as the one from Santa’s origin story which bucked up the Winter Warlock’s mood by suggesting that if you ‘put one foot in front of the other, soon you’ll be walking out the door,’ are tunes that always seem to always actively dwell in my mind.
So does The Who’s ‘Don’t get fooled again’ but that ditty exists in a different mental folder.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned in prior posts, the particular scuttle during which these shots were gathered wasn’t aimed at any one spot. I was straight up wandering, with intent revolving around getting from one T streetcar station on the north side of the Allegheny River to another one on the south side of the Monongahela River, via the peninsular ‘Downtown’ section of the Pittsburgh. Exploring, essentially.
I will admit to becoming somewhat intrigued by the flatiron shaped brick building pictured above, with its ornate lintels and terracotta decoration. I’m going to have to look into that one at some point.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Pittsburgh’s Smithfield Street Bridge, over the Monongahela River, is fascinating to this NYC transplant. Well… beyond being how I got from one side of the river to the other, where the T station is.
The piers and masonry of the bridge were designed by none other than John Roebling (Brooklyn Bridge), and the steel upper section of the bridge was created by Gustav Lindenthal (Queensboro Bridge).
…put one foot in front of the other…
Back tomorrow.
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The Newtown Pentacle 
Oy. Santa Claus. How goyische.
Liman
January 9, 2024 at 11:26 am
Pleasing scuttles
Tommy Efreeti
January 9, 2024 at 4:06 pm
Smithfield Street Bridge, very interesting. Also interesting is how low Pittsburgh’s bridges are in contrast with the ones on the East River and Hudson. They knew they’d never have to accommodate anything big. And “the Three Sisters” – imagine the economic rationale that led to building those three river bridges less than 500 ft apart.
dbarms8878
January 9, 2024 at 8:28 pm
The east river bridges are built around the port, and the navy yard. Verrazzano’s clearance is actually the standard for all world wide shipping and military ships as far as how high the stacks or bridge can rise since theoretically every ship on earth will eventually navigate the Ambrose Channel.
Mitch Waxman
January 9, 2024 at 9:49 pm