The Newtown Pentacle

Wednesday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Finally, a day arrived here in Pittsburgh when it wasn’t; a) raining, b) snowing, c) under 20 degrees fahrenheit. One packed up the camera bag, donned that filthy black raincoat which I refer to as my ‘Street Cassock,’ and set forth to scuttle up the hill to The T light rail station.

I have a real preference for leaving the car at home unless I absolutely have no other choice to do so. This is odd for the region I now live in, which very much ‘car country.’ Personally, I don’t want to be bothered with parking and then getting back to the thing when I’ve got a mass transit option. The car cuts into the often serendipitous decisions which occur when I’m walking about.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

That’s the solution that they came up with here in Downtown Pittsburgh to solve the ‘Homeless people pissing on the streets’ problem. Imagine that, not having to chance a ticket to do what comes naturally, and a large municipality which acknowledges human biology.

NYC’s response to a lack of such accommodation for the downtrodden has always been to send in the “Reverend in Blue” to write them a fine for pissing in public. I tell people about this here in Pittsburgh, NYC’s total lack of public bathrooms, a problem that only got worse after COVID.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Going back to the reasoning behind why I left the car at home, a random decision to walk over the Fort Pitt Bridge occurred to me and I was soon navigating my way over the Monongahela River, on the span’s bike and pedestrian path.

This was a medium long walk, incidentally, and over the course of the afternoon I probably scuttled out about 6-7 miles. It was also one of those walks where I was just making up my path and I didn’t have any sort of predefined destination or route. Just walking here, me.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

I’ve been hitting this ‘inner circle’ of Pittsburgh where the 3 Rivers meet for a couple of months now – for fairly prosaic reasons – it’s easy for me to get to, and it’s where the waterfront trails are the most developed. Additionally: tugboats and trains and bridges…

As soon as the weather becomes reliable (as in not freezing or snowing) in the early Spring, I’m planning on visiting a couple of other places in Pittsburgh’s ‘neighborhood,’ notably Cleveland. I’m going to overnight that one, as it’s a bit of a drive at about two and a half hours.

I’ll be passing through East Palestine – where that train blew up last year – on that one, as a note.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The Fort Pitt Bridge connects to the Fort Pitt Tunnel, and is punched through Mount Washington. It spans the very end of the Monongahela River, and is close to the Ohio River. That bridge in the distance is the West End Bridge, and it stretches over the Ohio, just for reference on the geography.

I didn’t catch the name of that Tug with those minerals barges, despite it being the protagonist of the photo (meaning that it was what the lens was focused on).

The path on the bridge for pedestrians like myself doesn’t go into the tunnel, instead it turns west and takes you – ultimately – towards the West End Bridge pictured above.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

It’s kind of getting personal now, not getting the composition above with a train on those tracks. Beyond personal, it’s annoying already. I’m going to get it, have no doubt. I think I’m going to have to set up the camera and just sit there waiting for something to happen. Photography is often a lot like fishing, you prepare your gear and go to where you need to, but if they ain’t biting…

Bah! One continued along his way, walking the pedestrian path’s ramp back down to ground level on the south side of the Monongahela River.

Having ridden the T into town from HQ, a free transfer to one of the inclines was in the offing, and since I was heading in that direction anyway…

Back tomorrow.

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