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Mortuus ambulans
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the Smithfield Street Bridge, here in Pittsburgh, pictured above.
I crossed back over the Monongahela River here, after having walked over the Birmingham Bridge previously. The corridor I was heading for on the other side has become one of my favorites for a photowalk. It’s where my original ‘long walk’ plan would have taken me, just with an extra five miles of scuttling thrown in.
Lots of rail action there, downtown Pittsburgh as a backdrop, and shadowed by the elevations of Mount Washington. Sweet.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While crossing the river, the Towboat Haley Michelle was passing by, couldn’t resist a shot of its passage.
My plan at this point was to head over to the Sly Fox Brewery – as it’s called – and grab a Pilsner, then hang out for an hour or so hoping to catch some passing rail traffic.
I’ve zeroed in on a model of radio scanner which I’m planning on purchasing. It’ll let me know whether or not anything might be heading my way when I’m lurking about – but this purchase is an act which will move me dangerously close to railfanning.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At the moment, I’m still depending on pure luck, as I was when CSX’s #4050 suddenly appeared and screamed right past me.
More tomorrow.
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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.
Ebrius est calor
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That abandoned structure pictured above, found in Pittsburgh’s ‘Uptown’ section, feels like it might be my spirit animal.
One was scuttling along on a dangerously warm afternoon, guzzling water from a flask that I now carry religiously. I had a bit of a trek ahead of me, but had downgraded the breadth of the route due to the fierce weather. A plan was hatched, and a new destination and path decided upon.
It still surprises me how many abandoned structures there are here – not just in Pittsburgh – but in the many communities that cluster around the city. After the steel industry pulled up stakes, the population collapsed.
Apparently, it’s quite a palaver to try and do anything with these properties – due to red tape, politics, etc.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One leaned into it, and soon found myself heading towards my new goal.
There’s a long stretch of fairly empty buildings and barren streetscapes to cross, between my spirit animal house nearby the Birmingham Bridge, and the downtown area. This is the very edge of the Downtown section, quite nearby the court houses and City Hall.
Some kid walked over to me, who appeared to be a creature of the streets, and scolded me for taking a photo which she thought she was in. ‘You have to ask permission to take somebody’s photo,’ she said. Rather than get into an argument with her, I just said that I didn’t take a photo of her, which I didn’t, and she sauntered away probably looking for someone else to annoy and boss around.
Lots of ad hoc constitutional scholars out there, these days.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My short term goal is pictured above, the Smithfield Street Bridge over the Monongahela River. Given the atmospheric conditions, I decided that my best course of action would be to find some shady but photogenic spot where I might spy some passing Railroad action.
That brewery I like on the other side of the river, thereby, became my next walking target.
More tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“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.
Perdidit in civitate aliena
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described yesterday, an attempt at a long walk, on a very hot day, saw me circumcising the effort down to a short walk. You’ve got to acknowledge and respect the environmental conditions.
These shots are from where Pittsburgh’s Birmingham Bridge meets the ‘Uptown’ section of the city. There’s an emergency bridge reconstruction project underway hereabouts, a project which was spurred on by the collapse of the nearby Fern Hollow Bridge in 2022 and a raft of Federal funding.
I love this sort of chaotic place. The construction guys and gals are artists and they don’t even realize it, with all of the signs, and the high visibility gear, and the tarps cladding the job sites.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Looking through the bridge’s ramps, that curving roadway leads towards the Oakland neighborhood with its universities, museums, churches, and other cultural centers. The lower ramp carries I-279 out toward the Squirrel Hill Tunnel, and then continues to points east. The bridge receiving the emergency repairs is the one with the tarps on it, quite obviously.
Infrastructure, amirite?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Right after this shot was gathered, my phone came out of the pocket and the planned route went out the window. I figured out a more wholesome pathway which wouldn’t put me at risk of heat stroke, but there was no way that I wasn’t going to be cooking in the sun for a bit.
A humble narrator was screwed in terms of shade, given where I was, and I’d just have to suck it up and walk in the direct sunlight for at least a mile. Thing about ‘back home’ was that – with very few exceptions – multi story buildings cast broad shadows that you can use that to your advantage on hot days. Large structures also cast ‘rain shadows,’ but I digress…
I pulled the brim of that Costco brand $15 bucket style hat I’ve been wearing low down over my face, and then just leaned into it.
Back tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“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.
Sine fine ambulant
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Alright… in retrospect… it was dumb of me to say ‘yeah, it’s hot out, but that’s no big deal.’ Regardless – it was exercise day, for both the hollowing meat puppet that supports my brain and the camera too, and despite climatological conditions which could be described as a ‘reverse blizzard,’ one set out for a long walk. Within a couple of hours, that was amended to a short walk instead.
Pittsburgh is famously humid. The CBS news station hereabouts has a humidity chart they show, when reporting the weather, which has a top range that is labeled as ‘ridiculous.’ Given the national heat wave’s eye watering temperatures out west, we were lucky that it was only in the middle 90’s here in the Paris of Appalachia, but factor in that ‘ridiculous humidity’ and my utterly fantastic decision to start this walk in the late afternoon… it was ‘shvitzy’ out there.
I’m a real complaint department these days, ain’t I?
Pictured above is the Birmingham Bridge, over the Monongahela River, which I was intent on walking across for some reason.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Pure existential misery is what a humble narrator was experiencing. ‘Heat island effect’ was in full force, and the concrete that I was walking on was radiating a hundred and change degrees of heat straight up, while the warrior sun above beat down mercilessly on my $15 Costco brand bucket style fishing hat. The air quality and dew point level was such that if you were to wave your hand through the air, it would be wet by the end of the effort. Yuck.
Regardless, I couldn’t help but grab a shot or two of these blokes guiding their boats onto trailers. There are many, many spots close to the downtown area here in Pittsburgh where you can put a boat in the water.
The spot in the photo above, for instance, is in a public park. That’s kind of awesome, if you ask me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On the other side of the river from where I started, and where that park is, there’s an enormous concrete plant which can observed from above. This plant sits in part of the footprint of a ‘used to be, once, long ago’ steel mill called the Eliza Furnace. I-279 is the highway riding on the cliff behind the plant.
These people seemed pretty busy, and there’s a bridge reconstruction project happening all around their operation.
It was a lot hotter out than I thought it would be, and by this point I was already thinking about where I wasn’t going to be walking to. My original plan was about twelve miles long and involved a wide ranging bit of scuttling about. In the end this was a just under five mile long walk.
More tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“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.
Solus ambulo
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After a cool experience with the Wings of Victory historic plane tour about 20 miles away, described in prior posts, I drove from Pittsburgh’s West Mifflin section over to the waterfront section of Homestead to execute one of my constitutional walks.
A section of the Great Allegheny Passage trail coils through here, and there’s a local chunk of it which I hadn’t walked yet. Distant, the section I normally frequent is landmarked by the Homestead Pump House, whereas this one is notable for the extant group of soaking stacks from the former Homestead Steel Mill complex.
To see the historical context of these stacks, click here for a Library of Congress page with ‘back in the day’ info and photo.
They’re just for show these days, an architectural curiosity sticking out of the parking lot at a gigantic shopping center complex called ‘The Waterfront.’ Near the Costco and not quite as far as the Sandcastle water park, close to the movie theater multiplex, that’s where you’ll find these.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This was a short walk on what was turning out to be a really warm day, and since there was no tree cover – I was schvitzing heavily. My plan was two miles in and two miles out, and along the way a CSX train came roaring past, so ‘win.’ I had a rail bridge in sight which was my turnaround point and mile marker, although I generally gauge my distance using time.
I’ve started religiously carrying a water bottle on walks, as a note, after my ‘problem’ about a month ago on a different trail.
According to my phone, I walk at 2.3 mph and have a pronounced limp affecting about 20% of stride, associated with my left leg. That’s the one with the smashed toe, broken foot which never healed properly, the sprain prone ankle, the knee that sounds like I’m crushing popcorn in it, and an onset of arthritis through out the entire assembly, so the data is easily interpretable by use of a single phrase.
I’m all ‘effed up.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The aforementioned water park, which is dubbed ‘Sandcastle,’ was quite busy and hundreds of kids were waiting their chance to get shot through a plastic tube, or into a wave pool via an angled ramp.
Above is one of my experiments, wherein 17 different shots were combined as some Yinzer teenager shot through one of the ride/tubes. All 17 were combined into a single shot. The action started at top right and finished bottom left, and that’s the same person you see at every stage.
Back next week with more moaning, and groaning, at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“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.
The Newtown Pentacle 