The Newtown Pentacle

Wednesday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

As described yesterday, one decided to take a Sunday afternoon long walk around Pittsburgh’s South Side section waterfront. As also described, my newness and naïveté about Pittsburgh’s environs demands that I offer a preemptive “mea culpa” if I get something wrong. My ignorance is epic at this point in time.

There’s a waterfront trail here along the Monongahela River which shadows the shoreline, and I think it’s one of the former railroad right of ways which has been converted over to a bike and pedestrian path.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

You can’t help but notice the Frank Bryan Concrete Factory when you’re in this area, with its sweeping conveyor belts flying about. The vehicle bridge in the background of many of these shots is called the Liberty Bridge, which serves a primary arterial purpose in terms of allowing vehicles access from Downtown Pittsburgh across the river and leads first to the Liberty Tunnel and then the South Hills section on the other side of the prominence of Mount Washington.

This is one of those spots you encounter in American cities where a whole lot of infrastructural elements come together.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Those concrete conveyors I mentioned earlier overfly the Pittsburgh Subdivision of CSX’s freight rail tracks, as well as the bike/ped trail. This offers pretty fantastic points of view for the wandering mendicant.

It also offers very nice POV’s if you’re into trains, but that’s a different post for a later date. In the meantime, neat triangular compositions abound.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The concrete factory seemed to be a wonderland of big machines and heavy equipment. This shot looks through a hole in their fence. I never trespass if I can help it, as I’m like a vampire who needs to be invited into a space to do my work.

It’s been a fantastic experience, incidentally, discovering things new and novel. My long residency along Newtown Creek back in NYC allows me certain insights into what I’m seeing and definitively guides where I’m pointing my toes, but it’s been fantastic to be surprised, awed, and mystified again.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Just beyond the Liberty Bridge is the Panhandle Bridge, a former heavy rail span which now carries the T light rail service over the river. I’m going to have to come back here at dawn and then dusk to see what those shots would look like.

As mentioned in yesterday’s post, I was traveling light for this walk. I left most of my gear back at HQ and was rolling about with a minimal photo kit in my bag.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Essentially, I’m still deep in scouting mode these days. Figuring out where neat images can be gathered in the future. I’ve begun to grasp what times of day I’m likely to see a train on the ground level tracks (2:30 on a Sunday, as in the shot above, not so much) in some future walk. I was absolutely magnetized to this particular location, but forced my feet to start kicking about again and move on.

More tomorrow.

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Tuesday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

To start – this and the posts following it reflect the first time that I’ve taken a long scuttle around the South Side section of Pittsburgh. There’s been a few ‘drive by’s’ and one or two ‘drive to’s’ in the recent past, but these shots were from my first longish walk around the zone. Anything I say in these posts reflects an extremely ephemeral level of experience, and if there’s something stated which I’m wrong about – please speak up and share your knowledge with the rest of the class.

This section of the City was founded as the village of Birmingham and annexed in 1872 by Pittsburgh. The South Side is more or less the part of Pittsburgh found between the Birmingham and Liberty Bridges, along the Monongahela River. The South Side Flats neighborhood is right next door, but I couldn’t tell you where the line of demarcation between them is to save my life.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The section further east of here, closer to the Birmingham Bridge, hosted a steel mill until the 1980’s, called the Jones and Laughlin Mill. The section pictured today was a warehousing and heavy manufacturing district that was directly connected to the rail yards and tracks of the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Rail Road.

Pictured above are the Liberty Bridge on the left, and on the right is the truss bridge which allows the T light rail to access its crossing of the Monongahela at the Panhandle Bridge.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The town father of Birmingham/South Side area was apparently a fellow named Dr. Nathaniel Bedford. He laid out the streets, and when industry began setting itself up here, huge numbers of German and other Eastern European immigrants showed up. There’s a lot of very, very old buildings on display here. By Pittsburgh standard, these streets are practically flat, I would mention.

These shots were gathered on a Sunday afternoon, so the streets seemed particularly deserted except for joggers, bike riders, and me.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

There’s a pretty large scale development project which I encountered that dubs itself “The Highline.” The showrunners where consciously connect the project to NYC’s Highline, even going so far as to use a silhouette of the Manhattan Skyline on logo bearing signage.

This complex used to be called the Pittsburgh Terminal and it dates back to 1906, when it was one of the largest warehouses on the planet. The 6 story and 868,000 square foot property was sold to an outfit called McKnight Realty Partners in 2016.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

There are flights of stairs everywhere you look in Pittsburgh. I climbed up this set, which had a quite pleasing combination of solidity with an easy rise and run, and I soon found myself up top.

Altitude always benefits the wandering mendicant with a camera.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

It was fairly sterile up there, I must say. There were cool points of view on offer, and I’ll definitely be back to take advantage of them in the future. This project reminded me a lot of the Bush Terminal redevelopments which the NYC EDC operates in South Brooklyn. Apparently, the real estate people here came to a similar conclusion as to profitable usage of the space as the EDC has, and have converted the former warehouse terminal space over to offices and for street level commercial usage.

More tomorrow, from Pittsburgh’s South Side, at 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.

Friday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

As mentioned yesterday, one had headed over to a section of the Montour Trail which includes a railroad tunnel punched through a hill (or hillock, maybe?). Also mentioned, I’m playing around with using the ChatGPT “artificial intelligence” as a research assistant.

If you ask ChatGPT “what is the Enlow Tunnel on the Montour Trail” you get this response:

The Enlow Tunnel on the Montour Trail is a historic railroad tunnel that was constructed in 1914 and later converted into a recreational trail in the 1990s. It is named after the nearby Enlow Mine, which was once one of the largest underground coal mines in Pennsylvania.

The tunnel is approximately 600 feet long (183 meters) and is situated along the Montour Trail, a popular 60-mile (97 km) recreational trail that follows the path of the former Montour Railroad. The tunnel is known for its distinctive curved shape and its role as a gateway between two sections of the trail.

The Enlow Tunnel on the Montour Trail is a popular destination for hikers, bikers, and other outdoor enthusiasts who enjoy exploring the scenic beauty of western Pennsylvania. The tunnel is open year-round and provides a unique experience for those looking to take a break from the hustle and bustle of daily life.

Overall, the Enlow Tunnel on the Montour Trail is a remarkable piece of history that has been repurposed for modern use. It serves as a testament to the region’s industrial heritage while providing a unique recreational opportunity for visitors to the area.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

My interest in these ‘rail to trail’ paths is absolutely piqued. Given the often severe and physically challenging nature of the heavily wooded surrounding topography, having a railroad graded path to scuttle along has been absolute nepenthe. You can walk for four or five miles in one direction, then backtrack to where the car is parked. Railroad grading is typically one foot of elevation relative to one hundred feet horizontally. The surface of the trail is either crushed limestone or pavement of one kind or another.

So far, I’ve found all sorts of side paths which branch off of the main trail. You can find these “desire paths” by looking for areas where others have stomped through the brush.

Machine says:

In the context of urban planning, a desire path refers to a pathway or trail that is created by people’s repeated use, rather than being formally designed or constructed by planners or engineers. Desire paths are typically formed when people take shortcuts or alternative routes across open spaces or between buildings, often in response to perceived inefficiencies or obstacles in the existing network of sidewalks or pedestrian walkways.

Desire paths are important for urban planners and designers to observe and consider, as they can provide insights into the needs and preferences of the people who use the urban environment. By identifying desire paths, planners can better understand where people want to go and how they prefer to get there, and can use this information to improve the design of the built environment.

In some cases, planners may choose to formalize desire paths by paving or otherwise improving them, in order to provide a more efficient and direct route for pedestrians or cyclists. However, in other cases, desire paths may be left unpaved, in recognition of the fact that they represent an organic and responsive approach to urban design that prioritizes the needs of the people who use the space.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Just off the Montour Trail path is Montour Run, a shallow but fast moving waterway which I found my way down to by following one of those desire paths. By NYC standards this would be wilderness, but by what I’m beginning to understand the Pennsylvania standard is, it’s still pretty urban. About an hour’s drive in any direction from Pittsburgh and you can be in the deep woods.

A two hour drive from Pittsburgh puts you into the reach of three states where people report having seen Sasquatches in the woods, specifically the “Pennsylvania Bigfoot.”

ChatGPT says: The “Bigfoot of Pennsylvania” – There have been several reported sightings of Bigfoot in the forests and wooded areas surrounding Pittsburgh. While there is no concrete evidence to support the existence of Bigfoot, many people believe that the creature could be a real, undiscovered species of primate.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

This whole “nature thing” is new to me, having lived in NYC my whole life. Back home, if you saw an Opossum or a Raccoon roaming about, it was a big deal and you’d mention it to people. Here, I’ve got deer and rabbits and every kind of bird you can imagine showing up in my back yard, and that’s about 5 miles from the “downtown” center of the City.

I got to wondering about what sort of predatory critters there might be roaming about in the rural areas, so I asked ChatGPT what it thought –

There are several predatory fauna species that can be found in the Pittsburgh area, including:

1. Coyotes – Coyotes are a type of wild dog that can be found in both urban and rural areas of Pittsburgh. They are primarily nocturnal and feed on small mammals, birds, and carrion.
2. Red-tailed hawks – Red-tailed hawks are a common species of bird of prey that can be found throughout the Pittsburgh area. They primarily feed on small mammals and birds.
3. Eastern timber rattlesnakes – Eastern timber rattlesnakes are a venomous species of snake that can be found in the forests and wooded areas surrounding Pittsburgh. They primarily feed on small rodents and other small mammals.
4. Black bears – Black bears are a larger predatory mammal that can be found in the wooded areas surrounding Pittsburgh. They primarily feed on plants and berries, but will occasionally prey on small mammals.
5. Bobcats – Bobcats are a type of wild cat that can be found in the wooded areas surrounding Pittsburgh. They primarily feed on small mammals such as rabbits and rodents.

It’s important to note that while these species are considered predators, they generally do not pose a significant threat to humans unless they feel threatened or cornered. It’s important to practice caution when encountering wildlife and to follow local guidelines for wildlife safety.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

I’ve actually spotted a few caves carved out of the hillsides by water action, and given the “folded mountain” and “ridge and valley” topography, it would be unlikely that hydrological action hadn’t actively carved into the rock over the hundreds of millions of years that these sedimentary deposits and mountains have existed. These landforms are older than vertebrates, after all. Caves. That’s another one for my summer playlist.

VOX Automata says: There are several publicly accessible caves and caverns located in the Pittsburgh area. Here are a few examples:

1. Laurel Caverns – Located about an hour south of Pittsburgh in Farmington, PA, Laurel Caverns is a popular destination for cave tours and exploration. Visitors can explore the underground chambers and passageways of the cave system, which features beautiful rock formations and unique geological features.
2. Cucumber Falls Cave – Located in Ohiopyle State Park, about an hour southeast of Pittsburgh, the Cucumber Falls Cave is a small, narrow cave that is open to the public. Visitors can climb down into the cave and explore the interior, but should exercise caution and bring a flashlight.
3. McDowell Quarry Cave – Located in McKees Rocks, just outside of Pittsburgh, the McDowell Quarry Cave is a popular destination for spelunkers and cave enthusiasts. The cave system is a series of interconnected passages and chambers, and requires specialized equipment and training to explore safely.
4. Indian Echo Caverns – Located about three hours east of Pittsburgh in Hummelstown, PA, Indian Echo Caverns is a beautiful limestone cave system that is open to the public for guided tours. The cave features underground lakes, waterfalls, and unique rock formations.

It’s important to note that exploring caves can be dangerous, and visitors should exercise caution and follow all posted guidelines and safety recommendations.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

A final shot of the Enlow Tunnel, and it was time to scuttle back to the Mobile Oppression Platform. One disturbing bit of Pittsburgh history that I knew about, long before coming here, involved the so called “Pittsburgh incident of 1968” and the more recent “Monroeville incident of 1978.” Both of these occurrences were hushed up, but a local filmmaker’s fictionalizations got the word out.

You never know when that sort of thing is going to occur again, around these parts. Third time’s the charm, huh?

Back next week with something different, at your Newtown Pentacle.

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“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle

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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.

Friday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

That’s a Caterpillar 980c Wheel Loader, which is a piece of construction equipment that was manufactured sometime between 1987 and 1994. It weighs 66,877 pounds and is powered by a 322 horsepower engine. Behind it is the Panhandle Bridge, and there’s also a concrete company down here which has docks on the Monongahela River, here in Pittsburgh.

The Panhandle Bridge carries the T light rail service over the “Mon.”

– photo by Mitch Waxman

For the last month, whenever I’ve managed to conjure up the time to do so – and the weather has permitted it – a humble narrator has been working on developing a geospatial awareness of this place in the space twixt the ears and behind the eyes. Truth be told, I’m still working on the basics – east or west and so on. Learning the lay of the land.

That’s the T emerging from the Panhandle Bridge, on the south side of the river, heading towards a stop at Station Square.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Since I was heading there myself, to board the T and head back to HQ, I decided to follow the elevated trackway on foot. Places like this are usually “my kind of thing.” A couple of teen aged kids were smoking the devils cabbage nearby, and they seemed to be on a date. A few people were walking dogs, and the occasional jogger or bike rider would flash by. As a rule, the bike people seem to wear “the outfit” (helmet, silky shirt, stretchy shorts, special bicycle shoes). Lots of vehicle traffic was moving around, but this was about 5 in the afternoon, so…

I began heading towards the end of my day’s movement.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

One cut through a massive for pay parking lot, found directly across the street from the light rail station, which charged $9 for all day. Given that this light rail is the start of Pittsburgh’s free zone for the T, that’s a fairly good deal. There’s parts of the area which are straight up urban, with apartment houses and all that. Saying that, Pittsburgh has a tremendous suburban and semi rural population who live in towns and boroughs which are car based. The accommodation, thereby, to get people to use mass transit rather than drive to the center, is a park and ride setup, with large relatively affordable parking facilities like this one. So far, I have not ridden the bus, but I also moved fairly close to the T’s Red Line.

The region’s bus system is fairly sprawling, and reaches far out into the surrounding counties. My understanding of that system is that you buy a parking permit for the bus operation’s park and ride lots and then head into town from whatever exurb you live in. A friend of mine suggested that the reason most of the area’s centers are spaced about 50 miles from each other is that 50 miles is about how far you could get on a horse in a single day.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

As mentioned the other day, one of my particular tasks at the moment is figuring out how to shoot Pittsburgh. Unlike NYC, with its environmental devastation and utter lack of vegetative life, there’s all sorts of forestry happening everywhere here. Getting a “clean shot” of something is fairly impossible without branches or brush intruding on the shot, so I’ve been forced into including the stuff in the composition.

Don’t get me wrong, Pittsburgh is an environmental nightmare when you get down to it – heavy industry, a permissive regulatory system, historical footprints, all that. It’s just very, very well planted with self seeding trees and shrubs.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

That’s East Carson Street pictured above, where the T comes back to ground at the Station Square stop. East of this spot is a neighborhood called the South Side Flats, which has a disturbingly heterogeneous collection of buildings and what I’m told is a thriving nightlife scene. To the West you’ll find the Station Square development area and eventually the Fort Pitt bridge, where this week’s posts began.

Next week – more, now than ever – at this, your Newtown Pentacle.

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“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle

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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.

Thursday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

After returning to the ground – Pennsyl-Firma, as it were – in a post facto interval experienced after walking over Pittsburgh’s Fort Pitt Bridge, one headed down for a rail to trail path which would place me in a convenient spot as far as boarding the T light rail service which would in turn take me back to HQ.

Along the way, I spotted the tug Vernon M. Weiland towing a chemical barge into the Monongahela River.

According to the experts at tugboatinformation.com, this boat was laid down in 1981 down in Arkansas and has been doing its duty in the Pittsburgh area since 2016. It’s owned by an outfit called Ohio River Salvage.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

I finally got to take a picture of a train, which has been something of a frustrating pursuit for me since moving to Pittsburgh despite the density of the industry here. Getting a photo of this sort of subject is a whole lot like going fishing. You pick a spot and wait. Eventually a train will come, or not. I know people who pack a lunch and bring a folding chair, and who will will sit there waiting for a train set for long intervals. This is completely the opposite of my entire “thing.”

I’m always moving, no matter what. If there’s a thing to see and it ain’t there when I’m passing by, then I missed it. I don’t like lingering about in any one spot for too long, as it makes me a target. Back in Queens, I learned to anticipate when LIRR or New York & Atlantic would likely be actively doing stuff. I haven’t developed that sort of sense here yet, and I keep on arriving at places just after a train has passed though or I’m leaving the spot as one arrives.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Unsurprisingly, due to homeland security and commercial schedule factors, the freight people don’t exactly publish a schedule of when they’re coming through. Unlike tugboats and other maritime operations, there doesn’t seem to be a site with a live feed of who’s who and where they are. What that means is that either I start carrying a folding chair around with me in the cargo section of the Mobile Oppression Platform and just accept that I’ll have to sit down like the foamers and the train spotters, or that I’ll need to just accept that it’s catch as catch can.

I don’t imagine that this particular news story filtered back to NYC, but there was just a major derailment and chemical spill situation about 50 miles west of Pittsburgh.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

That gray line on the otherwise yellow steel of the Fort Pitt Bridge is the pedestrian pathway that I walked over, which was described in two posts this week – Part 1, and Part 2.

One is beginning to develop an understanding of how to shoot Pittsburgh. There’s a lot of vegetation here, albeit it’s winter time bare sticks at the moment. It’s a very difficult proposition finding a clean view without some sort of kitchie booger crawling in from the sides, so I’ve instead just started incorporating the stuff in the composition. Also, as it’s almost always cloudy here, I’ve taken a few proactive steps in the direction of exposing for that as well. When it’s a bit warmer, I’m planning on doing several get up early sessions to see what dawn looks like.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

So far, none of the nightmare scenarios predicted by my NYC friends have come true. I haven’t found myself alone in a circle of pickup trucks with armed rednecks swirling about while loading their shotguns. Neither have I been buried in vertical yards of snow. They didn’t “just shoot me” when I was witnessed getting out of a car with New York plates. Give me time, as I’m sure I’ll piss somebody off, but so far the Pittsburgh people seem unusually nice and friendly. The local junkies would definitely boil you down for elements to pay for a fix, but they’d feel really bad about it afterwards. This could all change today, of course.

At any rate, I haven’t felt menaced or anything while roaming around in the area. One thing they’re really worried about in these parts are “Pedos” or pedophiles. Just the other day I was taking a photo of the Birmingham Bridge on the South Side of the Monongahela River, in a park, and I was approached by a young woman inquiring if I was taking pictures of her baby who was sleeping in a carriage. I didn’t want to explain to her that cameras can only take pictures of things they’re pointed at, so instead I bored her to death talking about the history of the bridge, and why I was photographing it. I continued on to a great recipe for soup that I had recently come across and… that’s how you handle a “Karen” in the wild.

What is it with the impulse people have to police public spaces and try to control other people’s behavior?

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The ‘pedo’ thing is weird though. Back in NYC, if somebody is giving you Karen crap on the street, it’s generally accusations of some sort of criminality. I was once asked “are you a terrorist” when I was taking a photo of the Queensboro Bridge on the Manhattan side. I found the question hilarious in and of itself, and briefly considered whether or not a terrorist would say “yes,” and if Al Qaeda issued business cards to its members. You want to know something about a group of people – find out what they’re scared of. Fear is far more revelatory than aspiration.

Back tomorrow with more, at your Newtown Pentacle.

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“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.