Archive for the ‘Pennsylvania’ Category
Intermodal Scuttle
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Topsburgh to Bottomsburgh part seven:
This section of road, here in McKees Rocks Bottoms (which I’m referring to as ‘Bottomsburgh’), goes by the super romantic nomen of ‘Intermodal Way.’ Sexy, no? This photo was captured right about here, if you wanted to poke about in the neighborhood via Google Maps.
One of the things which photographers do that drives me absolutely batshit revolves around closely guarding ‘their spots.’ There’s a lot of that sort of gatekeeping, and it’s annoying, so I just give out GPS coordinates to the world and hope that somebody goes there to get better shots than me sometime in the future. You’re welcome.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
All along the tracks, devastation. Collapsing warehouses, busted windows, all kinds of trouble. I’m kind of ‘interested’ in this area, so will definitely be paying a bit of attention to whatever is on the other side of those structures sometime soon.
Saying that, I ain’t an ‘urbex’ kind of guy. I always remind people that ‘I’m like a Vampire and need to be invited in to do my work.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m sure that there’s ‘great’ shots inside of there, but it’s also dangerous, and one seems to have become accidental prone in his old age – apparently.
It had only been a few hours since I had slipped on a patch of ice and then slammed down onto the pavement, but now in addition to my neck and shoulders feeling stiff, I was feeling a bit weird in the teeth (my jaw snapped shut during the fall, causing my teeth to ‘clack.’ I haven’t mentioned this previously, but my dentition is an ongoing and lifetime medical drama, and has been ever since I was a kid. Didn’t win the genetic lottery there, either, I guess.).
Grandma Sarah also told me that ‘you were put on this earth to suffer.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Looking up the hill towards where the people live, up in the slopes.
That newish industrial building in the fore was a bit of a mystery to me, but a quick Google search suggests that it’s home to an outfit called ‘American Steel Span’ which offers steel outbuilding kits.
Quonset my hut, then, and there you go.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s an example of the world’s smartest thing – cut the rail spur off and then create a truck based shipping yard, right alongside the rail yard instead. Might as well cut the piers away at the river and drop them into the water… oh… they did that one too. Sheiste.
This post is the penultimate of this series, I’d mention.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
More abandonment, but this one seemed to have work crews getting up to something inside, so hopefully some productive usage of this land might occur in the future.
Back tomorrow, to say ‘Hey Now!’
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Hitting Bottoms
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Topsburgh to Bottomsburgh part six:
At the southern end of the McKees Rocks Bridge, one enters that eponymous municipality which the bridge is named for. On the other side, you’re within the City of Pittsburgh.
There’s several different sections and styles of life found in McKees Rocks – normal ‘urban’ streets with wood frame homes, private suburb style development can be found up in the hills, there’s a bunch of ‘worker cottage’ style dwellings in a flood plain section that is called ‘the Bottoms.’
There’s lots and lots of commercial activity: warehousing, light and heavy industry, and a fairly enormous railyard which is operated by the CSX Railroading outfit. Saying that, there’s also a good number of abandoned industrial and commercial buildings here too.
The rest of my walk played out in these ‘bottoms.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’d be debarking the bridge nearby that first line of houses at the left of the shot above, and then negotiating myself into the industrial zone. Those aren’t ‘mill town’ houses, incidentally. That’s something else entirely. Worker cottages are also a different banana.
Ain’t so pedestrian friendly down there, I’d mention.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My plan involved following that long road parallel to the rail tracks. People just cross back and forth across these tracks all the time. I don’t.
My old pal Bernie Ente once cautioned me about being wary of the active tracks nearby Newtown Creek, as a switch could remotely trigger and trap your foot. As with everything else Bernie told me all those years ago, it was good advice and I stick to it.
I also don’t text while I drive, but that has nothing to do with Bernie. I just try to not do stupid things, although I do stupid things all the time. I do try, though.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It seems that if you need to park a semi in the Pittsburgh area overnight, there’s a parking lot in McKees Rocks just for that. It’s connected to a fairly large gas station, with multiple diesel ‘stalls’ for truckers to fill their tanks.
Finally, I negotiated myself over to that road without the sidewalks pictured above, and started heading away from the bridge.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A line of warehouse and light industrial buildings lined the tracks, as you’d expect. The steeple of that church caught my eye.
Economically speaking, things didn’t look so hot along the rails. More on that observation coming up tomorrow.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
So, this is where all that walking led me to.
I still had to walk ‘out’ and find a spot where I could summon a rideshare to get back to HQ, but that section of the walk ‘out’ involved another one of my ‘shot list’ objectives. I really wanted that rail shot…
More on that tomorrow, and the end of this particular scuttle.
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Serendipitous Scuttler saying ‘Hey Now!’
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Topsburgh to Bottomsburgh part five:
I mention my concept of ‘serendipity’ a whole lot.
The pinion which my intended usage of that term revolves around is ‘Mitch showed up with a camera, and then cool stuff started to happen.’
A different Towboat, which was heading westerly on the Ohio River, was observed from up here on the pedestrian lanes of the gargantua McKees Rocks Bridge. Serendipity.
About to move on, one decided to hang around instead, and that’s when I noticed another Towboat heading in an easterly direction along the Ohio River, towards the confluence point at the center of Pittsburgh where the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers form up into the Ohio.
This Towboat is called the Gale R. Rhodes.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Serendipity roared again here. Notice that Norfolk Southern rail unit navigating onto the Ohio Connecting Railroad Bridge? Squeal!
I sure noticed it. Hey Now!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I tracked the locomotive across the river, and cracked this one out when both the train and that distant Towboat – doing its duty between Pittsburgh’s Ohio River shoreline and Brunot’s Island – were in frame together.
One was obliged to hang about, thereby, until everything fell into place.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I love it when a plan comes together.
Wish that the locomotive engine was mid span on the bridge for this one, but I’ll take what I can get.
Back to scuttling!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I still had a decent amount of bridge left to cross.
After overflying the river, the McKees Rocks Bridges continues inland for a bit. Part of this is to handle the fairly startling difference in altitude between the bridge’s two sides, the other is to not compromise a rail yard and a down on its luck industrial zone below.
Once down on the ground in the McKees Rocks ‘Bottoms’ section, the timer start running out for this walk, but there was still some fairly interesting stuff I wanted to see down there. There was also that rail shot I was desirous of.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
McKees Rocks, and specifically the ‘bottoms’ residential side of the neighborhood is pictured above. I’ve been here before, during the first walk that I experienced over this amazing bridge.
Back next week with a couple more posts from this walk and then… man, oh man, the things I’ve seen and the places I’ve been…
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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.
Rolling and Rocksing, the Ohio River
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Topsburgh to Bottomsburgh part five:
Still onboard the McKees Rocks Bridge for this one, but a lot closer to the southern shoreline. Yesterday, I mentioned that I was purposely ‘drag assing’ a bit up here, lingering and loitering in the hope that the Ohio River might put on a show for me.
Lucky.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While waiting for ‘something to happen’ I waved the camera about a bit. I was trying to ‘box in’ a set of exposures for the three cardinal directions that are visible from this position, and also figure out how to expose for the water below. I was hoping for a train, or maritime activity. Something.
Lucky.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the tippy tip of McKees Rocks sticking out into the water. My next forays in this ‘zone’ are going to involve trying to get close to that shoreline. Don’t know if there’s any access at all, but you don’t know till you try.
Lucky.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Finally, the curtains opened, the band played, and the show I was hoping for started. I do miss my NY Harbor tugboats, yo, but I’ll happily take this.
Of course, this is a ‘Towboat’ on this inland waterway, not a Tug.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It passed under the McKees Rocks Bridge, the Megan Ames did.
The boat was towing four barges of a black mineral that was likely coal. Might have been coke, as well, but the one thing which I can say for certain is that the material was colored dark/black.
Also previously mentioned, a temperature inversion overnight had created somewhat random misty conditions popping up out of isolated and wooded spots. The light was changing several times a minute.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Off in the distance, another Towboat was observed, this one handling the back and forth of vehicles and crew to Brunot’s Island, where a ‘peaker’ electrical plant is maintained by the local electric utility.
That bridge is a railroad crossing for the Norfolk Southern railroading outfit, and is dubbed as the ‘Ohio Connecting Railroad Bridge.’
Back tomorrow with the payoff for being patient.
“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.
Scuttling onto the McKees Rocks Bridge
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Topsburgh to Bottomsburgh part four:
One managed to safely cross that gnarly intersection mentioned yesterday, an act whose execution caused me no end of existential anxiety, and soon the camera was positioned onto the McKees Rocks Bridge.
I’ve only walked this bridge a single time, and have been desirous of a return, as I think it’s fantastic.
This particular scuttle, which ended up being just a bit under ten miles horizontally, also saw me descending better than a thousand feet in elevation from ‘Observatory Hill’ in the Perry South area, nearby the Davis Avenue Pedestrian Bridge, moved through the neighborhoods of Brighton Heights and then Marshall Shadeland, crossing this bridge, and then heading down to the flood plains of the Ohio River in ‘McKees Rocks’s ‘Bottoms’ section on the other side of this bridge.
I get ahead of myself, however, and we are at the ‘crossing the bridge’ part of all that.
Just in case you’ve been wondering what the ‘Topsburgh and Bottomsburgh’ thing is about.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
McKees Rocks bridge is the longest span in Allegheny County, and it overlooks the massive Alcosan wastewater treatment plant found on the Ohio River on its northern approaches.
Pictured are – what looks to me – like aeration tanks, which wastewater professionals use to separate solid materials out of the ‘flow.’ Basically, the aeration causes solids to drop to the bottom for later collection. Solids can be anything from a matchbox car that some kid flushed down the toilet, to the rocks and stones and other detritus carried into the sewer grates during rainstorms.
My pals at the Sewer Plant in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint once told me that they had a bowling ball shoot out of one of the incoming pipes during a storm, which entered the plant in the manner of a cannonball. It caused all sorts of damage. The question of how a bowling ball ended up in NYC’s sewer system remains unanswered.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Looking across the Ohio River in a more or less southern direction for this one. I enjoy this bridge for a number of reasons, but primarily it’s an absolute ‘cat seat’ in terms of altitude and POV over the waterway, and the views are just fantastic.
Also, I like pointing the camera at industrial stuff, and there’s plenty of that visible from up here.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Saying that, I ended up spending close to an hour moving over the bridge as everytime I started walking, something caught my eye and I had to stop to get a shot. That’s the Fort Pitt Bridge in the far distance, catching a bit of light while standing in a cloud of rising mists.
As mentioned in my recent telling of the ‘slipped on ice and fell flat on my ass’ story, it had been fiendishly cold the night before, and the weather on this particular day saw temperatures in the high 50’s and low 60’s. That meant that a whole lot of misty weirdness was rising out of the hollows, crevasses, and ravines of Pittsburgh.
Lighting conditions were changing several times a minute, and things got photographically complex.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Me? I had a literal mile and a half of bridge to walk.
Pretty much loitering at this point. Waiting for a subject to pop into view, and scanning around for activity worth taking a picture of.
These moments are great tests for me, as a man who exhibits zero evidence of patience, and believes that the universe only shows him things that ‘need seeing’ when he randomly walks by them and that ‘you can’t force something to happen.’ One must compel himself to linger.
I remind myself of another personal aphorism – ‘it’s like fishing’ – and that you need to wait for a bite as you can’t order the fish onto your hook.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
You may notice how these shots continually look back towards that set of railroad tracks. One of the things I was looking for was rail activity.
I stuck the headphones into the ear holes, and started listening to that good old ‘History of Rome’ podcast again. I think I was on an episode numbered somewhere in the high 90’s, around the time of the Tetrarchy, but this walk was perpetrated on the 24th of March and today is the sixth of May, so… late in the game Italy based Rome, basically.
I find that ‘spoken word,’ as in podcast or audiobook, doesn’t lodge into my brain the way that the written word does. I need to listen to an audiobook at least a couple of times for it to ‘stick’ into my brain, whereas I can usually read a printed book, and then be able to quote it directly for a long bit afterwards.
Different parts of the language center in the brain, I guess.
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.
The Newtown Pentacle 