The Newtown Pentacle

Monday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

When I describe something as ‘totally stupid fun,’ it usually means that whereas you’re not going to be terribly comfortable during the experience it’s nevertheless something worth doing, at least once.

To wit, a recent endeavor involved visiting Pittsburgh’s Troy Hill neighborhood, and walking down its infamous Rialto Street, whereupon an exploratory walk along the St. Nicholas Trail would occur. This particular scuttle begins here!

Troy Hill sits above an elevated river flood plain, which is currently occupied (since 2011) by a high speed road called Route 28. Largely Catholic German immigrants began to populate this area during the 1830’s and 40’s. Later on in the game, there used to be a concentration of Croatians (from Jastrebarsko) living where Route 28 is today, and they called the area surrounding their St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church ‘Mala Jaska.’ Route 28 was widened and expanded over a long interval, with the project wrapping up in 2011-12, forcing the removal of the church and surrounding homes. At least, that’s what I’ve been able to discern about the situation.

Again, new to Pittsburgh – if I messed the timeline or tale up, please let me know via the comments and I’ll offer corrections.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The neighborhood of Troy Hill itself is fairly lovely, except for a few problematic spots which are sort of ‘crimey.’ The neighborhood is fairly static in terms of residential turnover and housing stock, with most of the homes in the area dating back to the 1940’s or earlier.

Troy Hill sits nearby and above Herr’s Island down at water level on The Allegheny River, and is next door to Millvale. Herr’s Island was where Pittsburgh’s stock yards were once found, and Rialto Street started out as a dirt path set into a ravine which was used to drive herds of pigs to the slaughterhouse found up top on the hill. The nickname ‘Pig Hill’ is actually still used and in fairly common parlance in Pittsburgh today.

Check out this page at brooklineconnection.com for historic photos of Rialto Street.

Rialto Street itself is only 20 feet wide, and is set against the slope of Troy Hill at a 20-24 degree angle. There’s signs saying ‘no trucks’ but trucks and busses routinely get jammed up trying to negotiate Rialto Street.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

There’s ’City Steps’ set along Rialto, placed so in lieu of a sidewalk. The first thing you encounter when starting down these steps is the Ley St. Bridge. It carries a local street over Rialto Street, and your humble narrator felt obliged to walk up that flight of steps and see what I could see from them.

The fifth steepest street in Pittsburgh, Rialto Street is. It ascends some 36 meters, or 118.11 feet – or 10.9 building stories – from the bottom at Route 28 to the top on Troy Hill. It was an easy decision to walk down these steps rather than up.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Looking back at where the first photo was captured, from up on the Ley Street Bridge. Those Rialto Street steps were difficult walking, even going down, I should mention. The spatial ratio of the rises and runs of these stairs cause you to descend in three step combos, and the same foot (the right sided one) always got stuck with the stepping down motion. My footsteps were thereby bunched up in sets of three, as opposed to four.

Left, right, left – instead of left, right, left, right – Y’know?

I checked with a couple of locals to see if adoption of this three step combo was ‘just me,’ and it wasn’t, as they described the same three step thing and how the staccato rhythm always threw off their stride. It was a good calf workout though, gotta say. I was sore for a couple of days after this scuttle.

I tell’s ya, if you’re spooked by stairs like I am right now (post busted ankle PTSD), Pittsburgh is definitely the place to confront that particular psychic noise and stare it in the eye.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The shot above is still from up on the Ley St. Bridge, looking down towards Rialto Street itself, with Route 28 and the 31st street bridge in the distance. The big bridge leads to Lawrenceville, which I walked through a few weeks ago back. It looks insane, doesn’t it?

Experientially speaking, when driving down Rialto Street, you’re not covering the brake – you’re riding it. My car is a hybrid, so due to the miracle of regenerative braking this pathway really helps me out with free voltage for the battery, but saying all that if you were to pick up enough speed here you will not be able to stop the car in time to avoid bottoming out at the intersection with Route 28.

I’ve seen people wreck their cars (and one semi truck) in this sort of circumstance all over Pittsburgh by not respecting the terrain. Imagine slamming the bottom of the front end of a car against the pavement at 40-50 mph… there’s a reason you see gouges in the asphalt at the bottom of steep hills here.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

A few guys shot past me on the steps like I was moving in slow motion, but as I keep mentioning – I’m a bit phobic about stairs at the moment. Broke my left ankle on a set of stairs. Still see flashes of the injury randomly, often when blinking my eyes. Spent two months in a wheel chair, which blinks in every now and agin too. Six months of quite excruciating recovery time. Stairs… brrr…

I’m subjecting myself to some self guided exposure therapy, basically, as the milquetoast and well mannered younger generations would refer to it. Me? I’m from Brooklyn, so I just remind myself to ‘stop being an asshole and get on with your shit already. Nobody cares.’ Still can’t go down stairs without clutching onto the bannister though. I mean death gripping the thing, not holding it, actually. It’s autonomic.

This post ends at the bottom of Rialto Street, but tomorrow’s post will share a few more shots captured along this extraordinary stretch of the viae publicae.

More ‘totally stupid fun’ tomorrow – at this – your Newtown Pentacle.

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