The Newtown Pentacle

Wednesday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

This missive is the start of another multi-day series of posts.

Welcome to Perry Hilltop, a plateau neighborhood found in the larger Perry South section on the North Side of Pittsburgh.

This walk, and the series of posts which fell out of it, began right about here. Efforts have been underway to explore Pittsburgh’s ‘North Side,’ which is the former ‘Allegheny City,’ a separate municipality that Pittsburgh annexed at the start of the 20th century.

These photos were gathered on the 9th of April.

As is my habit with such matters, I’ve been following ‘street corridors’ which overlay the past. Modern roads are chosen, obviously, whose path more or less mirrors the historic ones which were cut through the woods and cliff faces.

In the case of this walk, it’s Perrysville Avenue and the Federal Street Extension areas (which you’ll be see in over several incoming posts) which were originally set up as a plank road, between the Allegheny/Ohio River shoreline and less settled areas found up in the hills, with the path ultimately leading to some colonial era Military Fort up north.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The start of this series of postings, however, starts with a tiny bridge which leads to a larger one.

I’m told it’s called the ‘Maple Avenue Bridge,’ a 1929 ‘riveted cantilever truss,’ and I didn’t need to look anything up to tell you that it’s in a deleterious state of repair. There’s even an electrical supply cable sagging down over the thing, hovering right about shoulder height, as measured from when I scuttling along on the roadway’s sidewalk below.

This trip started with one of my one way cab rides from Dormont, which dropped me off right across the street from Maple Avenue Bridge.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

First thing that happened after getting out of the car, some kid walked up to me and asked me if I had any ‘smoke.’

I said ‘nope,’ don’t have anything on me to smoke, and asked him if he was hoping for a cigarette or something. He clarified ‘smoke’ as ‘weed’ and then made clear that he was seeking to sell me some. This misunderstanding and interaction amused both myself and that local entrepreneur. The kid wandered off, whereas I got busy with the camera.

Capitalism, huh?

The 1930 vintage E.H. Swindell (aka East Street) Bridge awaited.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The Swindell Bridge is pretty huge, a little over a thousand feet long and five hundred and forty five feet high. It connects two hilltops, spanning the ‘East Street Valley,’ which the I-579 and I-279 high speed roads run through down below.

The Swindell Bridge is – observably – in a horrible state of repair, and a $27 million rehabilitation project is meant to kick in either at the end of this year (2026), or early 2027, which will seek to address its many issues.

As linked to above, they’re going to try and spruce up the Maple Street Bridge as well, and there’s an areal ‘safe streets’ project which is theoretically going to be implemented concurrently with these other projects.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

This one looks down from the Swindell Bridge, at the interstate corridor below. As always, I need to state that I love the parabolas, curves, and massing shapes which are created by highway engineers.

Additionally, I hate the historic storyline that resulted in these visually interesting shapes being created. That tale included the demolition of more than 800 homes, and alienating the thousands of families who used to live down there, in the East Street Valley. Bah!

This view look north, although it kind of bends a little bit to the east too.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Looking south/west from the Swindell Bridge, Downtown Pittsburgh just kind of appears, peeking out from behind a hill. It should be mentioned that for the last nearly four years, I’ve been saying that ‘I’ve got to walk over that bridge sometime,’ while referring to the Swindell Bridge, while driving on the ‘Parkway North.’

That’s what the Yinzers call this road.

Check! Another one off my list.

Back tomorrow with more.

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