The Newtown Pentacle

Thursday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Swindell Bridge to North Shore, part two.

Your humble narrator journeyed over to Pittsburgh’s North Side and the neighborhood of Perry Hilltop, in order to access the pedestrian walkways of the 1930 vintage Swindell Bridge.

The span is in pretty bad shape, with both state and city’s inspectors describing its condition as ‘poor.’ Rust, concrete issues, you name it. When you get up close, you can actually see the various flaws, and they’re fairly terrifying if you know what you’re looking at. I kind of do, and it is.

That hill which the interstate (I-579/279) bends around to the right, and right on the other face of the landform, is where the amazing Rising Main city steps, mentioned a few weeks ago are found.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Blighting of urban areas isn’t accomplished simply due to a high speed road’s actual course just on its own. You’ve also got to factor in the service roads, ramps, and uselessly wooded areas which act as sound dampeners… so there’s also lots and lots of additional concrete, tons of vehicle and pedestrian barriers, and few or zero accommodations for humans who are not within motor vehicles.

Given other recent experiences, which will be discussed in forthcoming posts, I guess the walking public should just be grateful for that single sidewalk which is visible on the access road at the far right.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Personally, I drive the route pictured above maybe once or twice a week. I may bitch and moan about these high speed roads, but I do use them as well, so the hypocrisy is fully on display here. As I always said, the only NYC I knew during my time there was the one that Robert Moses left behind…

It’s a very, very easy thing to exceed the speed limit here, follow the flow of traffic and before you know it – you’re going 20mph over. There is little, if any, Police enforcement of speed limitations on Pittsburgh’s highways, unless it’s a holiday weekend and the cops are doing a ticket blitz – of course.

Sated by this early part of my morning, your humble narrator pointed his toes back towards the path he got in here using.

My plan was to shlep about for the rest of the day, following a colonial era pathway which has been turned into a ‘main drag’ street in modernity. Shouldn’t be too ‘physical,’ I said to myself.

It’s all downhill from here, essentially.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

So, I mentioned that this nearly century old bridge is in pretty lousy condition, right? The bus people aren’t allowed to use it anymore due to weight restrictions, and there’s weight limits for cars and trucks as well. In a couple of spots, concrete jersey barriers are placed, reducing the bridge down to one shared lane.

When I got a bit closer to one of the closed sections where the jersey barriers are, I decided to take a closer look. Holy shmigoley!

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The expansion joints! A plate of metal was welded against this expansion joint to keep it from further separating. Holy Monroley!

I’ve seen drawbridges over Superfund Sites in Queens with better joins. Sheiste.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

I walked back out to Perrysville Avenue, but this time I went under the Maple Street Bridge, where that high tension power cable had sagged down to about shoulder/head level.

What could go wrong there?

Back tomorrow with more.

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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.