The Newtown Pentacle

Tuesday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

As described yesterday, a humble narrator was enjoying an inaugural walk on the Duck Hollow Trail, here on the northern bank of the Monongahela River in Pittsburgh. During this ‘short walk,’ industrial leave behinds like the intricacy pictured above were encountered. The Homestead Steel Mill used to be located on the southern shoreline of the river, so it’s pretty easy to speculate on the purpose of the relict machinery here.

I had to do a bit of climbing for this shot, as the thing was obscured by feral vegetation. To me, this looks like the sort of conveyor belt system you’d use to transport bulk materials like coal or coke from a train to a river going barge (there were two sets of tracks in this area, one was the right of way that the trail occupies, and there’s parallel system which is still active is about a hundred feet away).

– photo by Mitch Waxman

This is what it looked like from the trail, hence the climbing. I had maneuvered myself onto one of the steel beams at the lower right hand side of the shot above for the first view. It wasn’t exactly a graceful climbing exhibition. I’m no Squirrel, but I do aspire to Monkey.

As stated hundreds of times over the last 13 months, I’ve been scouting while out shooting and scuttling about. Still looking for the ‘POV’s.’

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Back in April of last year, I attended a boat tour up the Monongahela River, and happened to get a photo of this contraption from the water side – which is the shot embedded above. Like I said – scouting.

Based on the graffiti, this seems like a ‘thing’ for the local youths to visit, but don’t know much more about it than the speculation offered above.

Residential Pittsburgh in this section occupies a much higher in altitude position than this waterfront does, and a steep landform rises up about a hundred to a hundred fifty feet away from the water. The neighborhood of Squirrel Hill is found up there, on the landform.

I analogize Squirrel Hill as being culturally a lot like the part of NYC’s Brooklyn which starts in Midwood along Kings Highway in the 30’s streets, and then continues over to Ocean Parkway, in the alphabet avenues. Largely populated by Middle Class Jewish folk in terms of population, Squirrel Hill is, which completes and colors my analogy to ‘the old neighborhood.’

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The Duck Hollow Trail’s offerings officially terminate at a smallish rail yard, which encountered signage described as being called Glenwood Junction. A worn footpath in the brush indicates that people don’t automatically stop at the train yard and continue on along its periphery. Maybe that’s how you connect to the rest of the Three Rivers Heritage Trail.

Me? This was my predesignated ‘turn around’ point for the day, exactly 2.5 miles from where I had parked the Mobile Oppression Platform.

I will never, ever, stop being grateful for the maniacs who run the Queens branch of NYC’s Transportation Alternatives lobbying outfit for describing ‘SUV’s’ as Mobile Oppression Platforms. Such enrichment is inspirational, so when Toyota insisted I give the car a name, this became my only choice. I also enjoyed their ‘two ton death machine’ terminology, and their assertion that every driver exists in a state of ‘pre murder’ once they put the key in the ignition. Good stuff.

As a note, when somebody insists that I offer my preferred pronouns, my answer is “It” and “That.”

– photo by Mitch Waxman

I found myself under the Glenwood Bridge in this spot. It’s a ‘Warren Through Truss’ type bridge, made of steel, and it has carried four lanes of PA 885’s vehicular traffic over the Monongahela River since it was opened in 1966. It connects the two ‘north side of the river communities’ of Hazelwood and Glenwood with a south side section called Hays.

I found myself wandering a bit too close to the rail yard here, which seems to be something that Pittsburgh’s Yinzers do often, but I come from a place which offers the citizenry tickets for spitting gum on the sidewalk and hosts a police force that’s larger than some country’s armies, so I obeyed my original plan and reversed course.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

One noticed this swing set up under the bridge, a companion to the tire swing in the last shot. Couldn’t help but pop out a shot and start heading back to the MOP. Things to do back at home, and projects which needed attention, all that.

I regret not climbing onto the swing for some ad hoc fun, I’d mention. Need to play more, me.

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.

Monday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Found on the north shore of the Monongahela River, opposite the community of Homestead, one will find the Duck Hollow Trail is laying in wait. I’ve spotted this trail – in the past and onboard a boat – and as I’m always looking for someplace new to go (luckily, everything in Pittsburgh is pretty much new to me) for one of my walks, decided to drive over on a recent afternoon and check this public facility out.

There are markers embedded in its path, indicating that this is part of the Three Rivers Heritage trail network of interconnected paths, but one is at a loss as far as finding the connection at its western terminus to the rest of the trail. On this particular day, which was a ‘short walk’ occasion of around five miles, one scuttled down about half of the trail.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

There’s parking, so I positioned the Mobile Oppression Platform – pictured above – with a nice view of the Homestead Waterfront across the waters of the Monongahela. Why shouldn’t the MOP enjoy a nice view? On a related note… I really have to get the car washed sometime soon.

After donning my camera, bag and affixing a 28-105 zoom lens to the camera, one leaned into it and sallied forth.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

That’s the Homestead Grays Bridge pictured above, named for the famous ‘Negro League’ Baseball outfit, and that’s one whopper of a bridge – which opened in 1937. It’s 3,750 feet long with its approaches, connects the Squirrel Hill section on the north side of the river with the Borough of Homestead on the southern bank, all the while providing some 108 feet of clearance over the waters of the Monongahela. It’s also the first built example of an engineering feature called the Weichart Truss, something you can read up on along with all its nitty gritty, at this page at aisc.org.

The trail itself had more of those ‘high slopes and difficult to get to the water’ setups which I’ve described in previous posts along the Ohio River, but under the Homestead Grays Bridge I was able to scuttle right down to the shoreline. Again, I have to figure that this built up banks situation is about flood control during spring thaws.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Most of the trails in the Pittsburgh area that I’ve been visiting are ‘rail to trail’ implementations, where the footprint of a defunct right of way for a rail company that’s out of business or no longer needed have been converted over to civilian usage. These rail lines used to service the steel mills which infested these shores, and in the case of Homestead, served the largest steel mill on the planet. These rights of way have seen their tracks pulled up and have been surfaced with either asphalt or crushed limestone, but occasionally patches of soil are encountered along them. The rail grading standard of one foot in elevation per every hundred feet horizontally makes them a fairly easy walk or bike ride, and they’re very well used by surrounding communities.

For one such as myself, this sort of grading allows me to vary my walking speed consciously and get to optimum ‘heart beats per minute’ levels which provide a curative to the various health issues I enjoy. Advice from the team of doctors has always revolved around this concept, which boils down to ‘slow and steady wins the race.’

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Somehow, I always manage to navigate myself to a spot where I’m happily standing in front of an open sewer. This one looks like a storm sewer, to me. Presumptively it’s draining off of the bridge’s vehicle lanes above, but there are also communities and residential developments lining the shoreline here so it might be performing ‘neighborhood’ based combined sewer duty as well.

I kept an eye out for homeless encampments and signs of morbid habitation along the shoreline when I’m shlepping along, but didn’t observe any signs of homeless villages nor vagabonds. I literally have zero fear regarding these encampments, instead I want to be respectful to folks who are already living through quite a rough time.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

One continued along his way, with a predetermined ‘turnaround point’ in mind that’s nearby a small railyard. If you’re curious about locale, this shot was gathered roughly here. The wooded sides of the trails were pretty typical for the region. Lots of birds, signs and tracks of nocturnal mammalian presence (raccoons etc.), and while scuttling along I encountered a few humans who were riding bikes, walking dogs, and or jogging or just walking along.

It’s nice, and I stuck my headphones into the ear holes to listen to one of the audiobooks I keep on my phone. This time around it was a dramatization of H.P. Lovecraft’s ‘Shadow over Innsmouth.’

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.