Walking in a nowhere land
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The kids called it the ‘Union Railroad Rankin Hot Metal Bridge #35,’ back in 1900 when this railroad bridge opened alongside Carrie Furnace and the Homestead Works. Whew! A glorious bit of scuttling this was.
I snapped that 16mm wide angle lens onto the camera for this walk over the Monongahela River.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Graffiti art adorned every flat surface within sight, and there seemed to have been a few acrobats counted amongst the corps of artists, as evinced by tagging that was observed high up in the rafters.
I’ve never been a good climber, personally. I lumber about like some sad and masterless pack animal stuck to the ground. Slow, dull witted, foul smelling – that’s me. Just ask anyone.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I wasn’t doing anything systematic, incidentally, as far as where I took a photo or not – in other words – it wasn’t ‘every ten feet’ or anything. Just whatsoever might have caught my eye while scuttling along.
Sometimes I like to hold the camera low, just above hip level and against the belly, swinging the screen out so I can wield the thing like it’s an old viewmaster.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Back at the entrance section to this storied marvel, on the southeastern shore of the Monongahela River. This waterbody is shaped like a coiling snake, I’d mention, and I’m never sure which cardinal direction is which.
I never bought a compass, which is something I said I would do a while ago. Just another hatched mark on my list of failures, I guess.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One last shot looking back at the bridge, in the direction of the campus of Carrie Furnace. Wish I could tell you which direction, but no compass, as mentioned above.
It’s been a rough month of June for me, what with all the doctor’s appointments and diagnostic tests. I hate being the subject of scientific inquiry, as has been mentioned in the past, but ‘you gotta do what you gotta do.’
I pointed my toes in the direction of the hole in the fence which allowed me egress here, and the final mile or so of this walk on the Great Appalachian Passage trail, here in Pittsburgh (although this was technically Homestead and or Munhall, and the other side of the bridge is in Rankin, but that’s just splitting hairs).
– photo by Mitch Waxman
These shots were gathered before the week long heat wave that affected most of the nation set in, a weather event which largely shut me down. I always refer to such times as a ‘reverse blizzard,’ but I’m an idiot – just ask anyone.
Back next week with something different at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
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The Newtown Pentacle 
Great pics! I think your cell phone likely has a compass if it is new enough. In Google Maps on my 2020 android phone the you-are-here symbol has a fuzzy direction indicator that reacts to how I orient the phone. Your cell phone compass might not have worked well while you were on that bridge because of the surrounding steel.
dbarms8878
June 28, 2024 at 8:04 pm
I have since rectified the situation, and an $8 caribinier compass will soon be attached to my bag. Yes, the phone has a compass, but it’s dependent on signal and is sort of overkill for what I need.
Mitch Waxman
June 29, 2024 at 10:18 am
FYI the Google Maps app enables one to download Google’s road map of Pittsburgh and suburbs onto a cellphone as an offline map, needing only 100MB or so of memory. This means one can navigate without cell service when needed. The switchover should be seamless as cell connection is lost and restored as one moves about. I saw this work in southern Utah.
The cellphone location is updated by GPS signal from satellites (which has its own connection issues when you’re surrounded by iron, concrete, earth, but so will a standalone compass.) Cell connectivity is not needed.
I think the cell phone magnetic compass indication should also work with the offline map, because its a standalone function inside the cellphone. I’ll give it a try.
dbarms8878
June 29, 2024 at 7:34 pm
Sounds complicated. The regular compass arrived today, and is attached to the camera bag
Mitch Waxman
June 29, 2024 at 8:54 pm