The Newtown Pentacle

Monday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

As mentioned last week, a humble narrator boarded an Amtrak train for a day trip to Philadelphia with an ambitiously drawn up shot list. My plan for the day involved a granular series of photos of several of the Schuylkill River bridges, with an eventual sunset destination at the Benjamin Franklin Bridge along the Delaware River.

My usual habit of remote scouting, using Google Maps to plan my shot list, was utilized and I found myself acuttling around in the City of Brotherly Love on the 7th of March, in 2022. The weather was warm (middle 60’s – low 70’s) and somewhat humid. The forecast for the day was a bit ominous, with a line of rain and storms meant to impact the area in the late afternoon or early evening. I was glad that I had worn a cotton sweatshirt rather than the fleece one that the calendar normally indicates, and had left the filthy black raincoat back in Queens. I had my full kit with me, including an umbrella, and arrived in Philadelphia just after 7:30 a.m. I got to work early.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

After visiting the power plant discussed in last Friday’s post, my next stop was at the South Street Bridge over the Schuylkill River.

Pictured is the 2010 version of the span, which replaced a 1920 bridge that was coming apart at its seams. As mentioned in earlier posts, my plan was to exploit the Schuylkill River Trail for photographic pursuit.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

As part of the South Street Bridge reconstruction, the City of Philadelphia also created a “boardwalk” connected to the bridge project. Apparently, some sort of Federal Economic Stimulus money was applied to the creation of this pathway. Long ramps carry pedestrians and bicyclists from the streets above down to the waterfront.

I was shooting this series of photos all “artsy fartsy” with a filter that acts in the manner of sunglasses and cuts the light down to nocturnal levels. That’s why you’re not seeing the multitudes of people that I saw with my eyes, as they’d have to be standing stick still for at least thirty seconds to appear as anything other than misty ghosts and blurred shadows.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The boardwalk continued northwards – or at least I think it was north. Also as mentioned in a prior post, I really had no sense of direction regarding the cardinal meridians here. In NYC, I can tell you exactly which direction is which, based on a few landmarks – the Empire State Building and the like – but geospatial awareness is something that develops with experience and this was a day trip, after all.

I can tell you, however, that this boardwalk was an absolute magnet for the population of the surrounding neighborhoods. Moms with kids, dog walkers, people eating breakfast or just having a stroll. There was a cool vibe in the air, no doubt due to this being a warm and bright – if somewhat overcast – day.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Philadelphia seems to have several sections which would qualify as “downtown,” although for some dopey reason they call their downtown “Center City.” They should really bring in consultants from New York City when they’re naming things hereabouts. This shot is looking up the Schuylkill River in a direction I’d posit as being north, towards 30th street station.

I’m told that this “zone” is where the gentrification forges are constantly billowing locally grown fire and artisanal smoke. Nearby, and to the left/presumptive west, in the shot above, is a section of the city referred to as “University City.” You’ll find the campus of the University of Pennsylvania there. The high speed road on the left side of the shot is the Schuylkill Expressway.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

My next subject was the Walnut Street Bridge. The masonry piers are original to an 1883 crossing which was demolished in 1988. The three modern day truss bridge segments carry two motor vehicle, two pedestrian, and a singular bike travel lanes (bike was added during a retrofit of the span in 2012). The modern bridge opened in 1990. It’s 60 feet wide and with its approaches some 2,408.3 feet long.

More tomorrow…

“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

An Amtrak train carried me from NYC to… Philadelphia… for a day trip. I had rolled through here not too long ago, but my visits were only as part of a layover on two trips to and from the pretty city of Pittsburgh on the western side of Pennsylvania.

Pittsburgh postings from my first autumnal visit, listed in chronological order – Great Elms, Gnarled Orchards, Ancient Walls, Lower Meadows, Choked Fissure, Human Clothing, Other Constellations, Certain Circumstances, Terrestrial Gravity, Needed Form, Without Dissolution, Calculations Would, Grave Doubt, Luckily Obtainable, Abnormal Toughness, Prodigious Time, Unexampled Flight, Earthward Dreams, and finally Bacterial Agent.

Both times I was in Philadelphia in 2021, my schedule was extremely limited, and a decision was undertaken just after Christmas to return to Phillie in 2022 and do my thing in a planned and intentional fashion.

Here’s what I gathered last time I was passing through the Brotherly Love Capitol in November of last year – “hideous gnawing” “menacing dreams” “every hand” and “passed close.” Again – I had little idea what to expect there, and a very limited time to shoot.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

This time around, there was a plan, and a rather ambitious shot list. When designing the list, I was fully cognizant of the fact that there was practically zero chance of getting through the entire thing in the roughly 13 hours I’d be spending in the municipality.

On our way into 30th street Station, which is “the Penn Station of Philadelphia” and pictured above and below, I spotted the historic rolling stock of an outfit called “Catalpa Falls” which offers luxury rides on heritage Pennsylvania Rail Road executive cars that have been lovingly restored to their original glory. Neat!

– photo by Mitch Waxman

A couple of things to state;

First – I only possess a tourist’s level of knowledge about Philadelphia. Ok, I’m not an ordinary tourist, but if I state something in this or subsequent posts that’s wrong, I’d beg for corrections in the comments. Unlike the sort of “deep dive” stuff you associate with me on the waterways of NYC, I haven’t got a lived experience for these posts that I can lean on to inform the narrative. I ain’t from here.

Second – 30th street station, pictured above, is found along the Schuylkill River. The Schuylkill is 135 miles long, stretching from Pottsville to Philadelphia, and is a tributary of the larger Delaware River. Given that I have to analogize everything to NYC as that’s my frame of reference – the Delaware is like the Hudson, and the Schuylkill is like the East River. I spent most of my day along this path, and the Schuylkill River.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

There’s a post industrial series of landings and pedestrian/bike piers set along the Schuylkill’s shoreline, which follows along active freight rail tracks, and form what’s known as “The Schuylkill River Trail.” I’m told that “Schuylkill” is pronounced as “school kill” which is dumb and the reason why Phillie is stupid as compared to New York. Sky Kill would be better, and they should have checked with a New Yorker before working out a pronunciation.

A third thing for these series of posts that I’m going to warn you about – I’m from Brooklyn, and shit talking Philadelphia is a part of my DNA. I like using “America’s Consolation Prize” best for the place, when throwing shade. Saying that, it’s still one of the great American population centers, a significant contributor to our ancient and current culture, and one of the major nodes found in the North American Megalopolis. Philadelphia is actually a very cool and fairly astounding place, but I’ll never let one of those cheesesteak eaters hear me say it out loud.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

My fourth caveat in these posts is that I’m not 100% on cardinal directions since I’m largely unfamiliar with Philadelphia, but I’m pretty sure that the initial point that my shot list started at (above) was southeast of 30th street Station. I walked as far as the Schuylkill River Trail allowed me, which was right alongside a power plant and a set of railroad tracks.

The rail trackage seems to be the property of the CSX outfit, and later on in the day, I saw one of their trains using the right of way. You’ll see that too, but sometime next week, so at least now you’ve got something to look forward to.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

An energy outfit based in Boston, dubbed Vicinity Energy, operates a gas powered electrical generating mill here, in what I’m told is South Philadelphia. They pump out some 163 megawatts of electrical juice from this “cogen” plant as well as supplying steam to hundreds of buildings. “Cogen” means that they co-generate steam and electric, just like Big Allis on the East River in LIC. The landward sections surrounding this plant are called Gray’s Ferry and Forgotten Bottom.

An attempt at finding out a bit more about this power plant was subsumed and overwhelmed by tales of racial tension and ethnic clashes in the neighborhoods surrounding the plant. Apparently, the residential areas nearby this section of the Schuylkill have been a flashpoint for turmoil and animus along social class and racial lines for decades, if not centuries.

Next week – more from Philadelphia’s Schuylkill waterfront.

“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.