The Newtown Pentacle

Wednesday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Your humble narrator was on his way to attend another lecture when these shots were gathered. This time around, the talk would focus in on and discuss a family of Bald Eagles which had been nesting at U.S. Steel’s Irvine Mill, which is in the broader Pittsburgh ‘metro.’

It was a fiendishly hot day, but I took the opportunity to kick my feet around a bit, before the lecture started.

I’ve been attending lots of presentations, lectures, and talks recently. There’s a plethora of such opportunity here in Pittsburgh, mostly either free or ‘nearly’ free. Free and educational? I’m in!

My short walk to the event carried me over the Monongahela River, via the ‘Hot Metal Bridge.’

Also, for this latest batch of posts, I’ve used WordPress’ AI to generate the titles. Normally, it’s just ‘whatever’ up there, figured I’d give this a try.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

A former rail bridge that connected the two sides of a steel operation called ‘J and L Steel,’ this span has been converted over to modern use. Above there’s a pedestrian/bike only path, and below is a roadway carrying a not insignificant amount of vehicle traffic.

The lecture I was heading towards would be presented at a hotel which is part of a ‘tech incubator’ area, created on part of the old steel mill’s campus, which is populated by grad students from the big universities and corporatists from every technology company that you could name hoping to catch the ‘bleeding edge’ of technology.

I was early, as is always the case.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

In the distance, the Birmingham Bridge, and a Towboat navigating down the Monongahela River in a southeasterly direction. Your humble narrator was playing around with a new addition to the camera bag on this scuttle, a circular polarizer filter.

The filter ‘straightens out’ light, reduces refraction, and introduces some control over reflectivity. Gives me another opportunity to overly complicate things, as well, so win.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Using my old math, pieced together back on NY Harbor, each one of those seven barges carries the equivalent cargo of around thirty heavy trucks. If you need to move a whole lot of something heavy, best way to do so in terms of ‘spending fuel’ is by water transportation.

I do miss the smell of salt water, as a note.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The ‘Winnie C’ is the Towboat pictured above, and I know little to nothing about the boat other than that I see it fairly often. Presumptively, that black mineral in the barges is coal, but unless you know for sure…

The lecture itself that I would be attending was presented by a former Manager for the Irvine plant, a fellow for whom the care of these eagles nesting on the USS property became a personal project. We were told about the various governmental agencies, Federal and State, which oversaw the nest and helped the company and its employees care for the critters. I should mention, it’s not uncommon to see eagles hereabouts.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

At the end of the lecture, he handed out little squishy foam bald eagle toys. I gave mine to Our Lady of the Pentacle when I returned to HQ. She enjoyed it far more than I thought she would.

Back tomorrow with something different – 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.