Short walk, long pier, please
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As you may recall, last week’s postings involved your humble narrator beginning one of his ‘photowalks’ in the community of Beechview, whereupon a T light Rail car was boarded. Said T light rail service deposited me at the First Avenue Station, here in Pittsburgh’s Downtown section. This is where the Panhandle Bridge (pictured above), which carries the T’s tracks across the Monongahela River, connects to the central triangle of downtown.
There was a terrific amount of maintenance work underway on this particular day, as we riders were made to understand, and were my intentions to continue along the route then a transfer to a shuttle bus would be required. This wasn’t my plan, however, as I needed to walk and thereby exercise the recovering ankle and the rest of my roadway interface.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
First Avenue Station is where the T switches away from operating an above ground service running along bridges and streets, and instead becomes a subway for about three stops in the downtown area. This section is also within the ‘free zone’ and no fare is required. Because of the work underway, the T’s were stacking up at First Avenue Station so I decided to hang around a few minutes and get some shots of all the coming and going.
The ankle is coming along, and on this walk it was rather less noisome than the last time I tried something similar. What’s bugging me right now is the atrophy experienced during the recovery interval, which seems to have really ‘done a job’ on my upper thighs and hips. Strength training is now on my bingo card for late winter and spring, I guess.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As intoned, I hung around First Avenue Station for a few minutes to record the scene, and then set out looking for an elevator. There’s fantastically long sets of stairs found here which lead down to the street, but frankly – I’m not ready to commit to that sort of effort yet. On my way, I found a public bathroom and after taking care of business set off on my way towards the elevators.
This walk, as a note, stuck pretty close to the T throughout its length. This was entirely by design, an ‘out’ in case my ankle started acting up and I needed to abort the mission and get back home quick.
Back tomorrow with more, at your Newtown Pentacle.
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