The Newtown Pentacle

Tuesday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Your humble narrator knew about the existence of a few of the rail trails which snake around Pittsburgh’s edges, but frankly – I had no idea how extensive or numerous they are when I moved out here. The former ‘right of way’ for a bankrupted rail road, or an abandoned ROW no longer used by an extant RR outfit, these trails are converted over to recreational usage for the public after legal ‘abandonment.’ The miles long strips of property ends up in the hands of the state/city/towns they move through. These entities find the cash to pull up the rails and pave the surface, and are usually cared for and maintained by either non profits or ‘friends of’ groups afterwards.

Lots of bike riders, joggers, and pedestrians like me use these trails.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Other than offering a series of fairly unique views, the rail trails also give you a back stage POV on the various industrial sites along their path. The industrial sites were likely sited here to take advantage of the former rail service, and you’ll still see the tracks of sidings crawling out from under fences and onto the properties.

The rail trails also host a fairly unique terrain in Pittsburgh due to their relative flatness. Rail grading equates to one foot of elevation for every hundred feet of horizontal travel, as a note. A variety of trail surfaces are encountered: pavement, asphalt, sometimes crushed limestone. The latter makes for the best walking, imho.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Me? I was doing fine. The ankle was cooperating with my ambitions, and all of this ‘stretch and strengthen’ business I’ve been up to for the last few months has started to pay off. I’m still walking a lot slower than I used to, but I’m doing so without much pain at this point.

Really looking forward to being back in NYC next week, and visiting my beloved Newtown Creek. Hopefully, it will be a meditative interval.

As the occultist saying goes: ‘A wizard must return to his place of power periodically for replenishment.’ I plan on getting plenty replenished.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

I’m going to be seeing friends and family on this trip, as well as indulging myself in things I used to enjoy. Riding the ferries and smelling the salt water of NY Harbor again sounds really good after suffering through the whole ankle drama. Heading upstate to visit a buddy for a night, and then going back to Queens – LIC specifically – and my Creek. I’m probably not going to spend any time at all back in Astoria, and will be staying at a buddy’s house in Middle Village. Greenpoint is on my ‘to-do’ list too, as is a meal at a certain Kosher Deli in Mill Basin. First Calvary Cemetery will be getting a visit, I suspect.

I’m trying not to over schedule myself this time around, and am planning on doing a lot of photography. A whole lot.

Any suggestions? Anything major that I’ve missed over the last couple of years that I should pay attention to? I’m hoping for serendipity to strike, but some ‘intel’ would be appreciated. Send me a comment using the site link below. Let me know if you don’t want the comment to be public in the text.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Back in the Steel City, this scuttle was hurtling inexorably closer to the titular end of the Ohio River trail. The neighborhood surrounding the industrial zone I’ve been skirting around the edges of is called ‘Chateau,’ or so I’m told.

As described in a prior post focusing in on Western State Penitentiary, also found along this trail, this ‘zone’ is about to struck with the gentrification hammer. The real estate people want to build a giant Ferris Wheel here in the style of the London Eye, with a shopping mall and entertainment complex that offers ‘affordable housing.’ That’ll fix all of Pittsburgh’s problems, for sure.

To be fair, George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. founded his ‘G.W.G. Ferris & Co.’ in Pittsburgh, lived on the North Side and died (1896) there too. Ferris was a railroad and bridge engineer, but was contracted to design and build an attraction for the Great Colombian Exhibition in Chicago (The White City) back in 1893 that would overshadow the Eiffel Tower. He invented his eponymous Ferris Wheel, thereby, in Pittsburgh.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

My scuttle was nearing its end, as evinced by the looming nearness of the West End Bridge. To my understanding, the admixture of Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers officially becomes the Ohio River at Point State Park in downtown Pittsburgh – so that’s mile marker zero for the waterbody.

West End Bridge is 1.9 miles from that spot, ‘as the crow flies.’

Back tomorrow.

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“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.