The Newtown Pentacle

Altissima quaeque flumina minimo sono labi

Six mile scuttle continues on, and on

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Monday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

As one may recall from last week’s mishegoss, your humble narrator took a lovely walk in Pittsburgh on a summer day and saw lots of cool things. Many photographs were collected along the way, and now you’re all caught up.

The Duquesne Incline is pictured above, descending from the heights of Mount Washington to its lower station. I refer to this incline as ‘the red one,’ as there’s also a ‘yellow one.’

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Whilst picking my way along the shoreline, the sound of rock being cut or drilled into began to echo. A cloud of white smokey dust began to billow from beneath the incline’s tracks, and then the incline was being run right through it. Neat!

There weren’t any fire people or cops running around, so I figured that there was no reason to panic. Atmospheric!

– photo by Mitch Waxman

I felt obligated to crack out a few shots of this scene, with the one above being my favorite. Glad that I had outfitted the camera with the ‘all in one’ Zoom lens that has a range of 24-240mm. Long reach, that.

This was roughly the half way point on this scuttle, which started on Pittsburgh’s North Side at the terminal stop of the T light rail.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The Towboat Vulcan appeared, towing a very low in the water barge.

In the background is the Allegheny River, and the Fort Duquesne Bridge.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The Fort Pitt Bridge would be where I next ‘took up station,’ but I mean beneath it not above. Troll, me. Under bridges, that’s where I can be found. Really, it’s also quite shady down there.

The signals over the rail tracks indicated that something was coming towards me, and there’s a spot I like under the bridge for rail photos, so I walked as fast as I could to it. Post broken ankle, I still can’t run, so I started heading towards that spot as fast as I could manage.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

A tourist boat, The Gateway Clipper, gave me something to point the camera at while I was waiting for the next train to arrive. It navigated under the Fort Pitt Bridge and away.

Back tomorrow with more from the Paris of Appalachia – at this – your Newtown Pentacle.


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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.

Written by Mitch Waxman

September 1, 2025 at 11:00 am

One Response

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  1. You’ve really ended up in a pleasant place, Mitch – Paris of Appalachia, no doubt.

    lucienve's avatar

    lucienve

    September 1, 2025 at 11:52 am


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