Archive for the ‘Pittsburgh’ Category
Existential scuttling
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Those old Christmas season cartoons – the stop motion animation ones from Rankin Bass – they had one heck of a sound track, if you ask me. The Heat/Cold Miser song, in particular, as well as the one from Santa’s origin story which bucked up the Winter Warlock’s mood by suggesting that if you ‘put one foot in front of the other, soon you’ll be walking out the door,’ are tunes that always seem to always actively dwell in my mind.
So does The Who’s ‘Don’t get fooled again’ but that ditty exists in a different mental folder.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned in prior posts, the particular scuttle during which these shots were gathered wasn’t aimed at any one spot. I was straight up wandering, with intent revolving around getting from one T streetcar station on the north side of the Allegheny River to another one on the south side of the Monongahela River, via the peninsular ‘Downtown’ section of the Pittsburgh. Exploring, essentially.
I will admit to becoming somewhat intrigued by the flatiron shaped brick building pictured above, with its ornate lintels and terracotta decoration. I’m going to have to look into that one at some point.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Pittsburgh’s Smithfield Street Bridge, over the Monongahela River, is fascinating to this NYC transplant. Well… beyond being how I got from one side of the river to the other, where the T station is.
The piers and masonry of the bridge were designed by none other than John Roebling (Brooklyn Bridge), and the steel upper section of the bridge was created by Gustav Lindenthal (Queensboro Bridge).
…put one foot in front of the other…
Back 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.
Golden crossing
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described last week, a humble narrator was taking one of those regular but quite existential ‘long walks,’ here in Pittsburgh. The scuttling motions were not following any particular design or desire, nor was there an esoteric photographic subject which my steps were chasing toward. Rather, one was simply wandering about, in the manner of a mendicant, clothed in black sack cloth.
The car was back at HQ, and I had taken mass transit (The T Streetcar service) to the northern shore of the Allegheny River. Pictured above are two of the ‘Three Sisters’ bridges spanning the waterway in this section, as captured from the ‘Three Rivers Heritage Trail.’
I don’t remember exactly, but I think the bridge pictured above is the one named for Roberto Clemente, an athlete who was beloved by the masses of this city. The span is also known as the Sixth street bridge, if I’m right about which one it is.
They all look alike, this triad, hence ‘three sisters.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m fairly sure that this shot was gathered on the Rachel Carson (author of Silent Spring) or Ninth Street Bridge, which I crossed the river upon, from the ‘North Side’ to ‘Downtown.’ Nothing really matters, however, and nobody really cares.
Longtime readers of Newtown Pentacle will remind the newer victims that a humble narrator often gets a bit morose around this time of year – it’s the cold and the dark and the paucity of opportune moments, and most of all – serendipity – which puts me into a mood.
Not anyone’s problem but mine, though, and I always end up finding something ridiculous or interesting to do, the novelty of which blows away the shroud of winter cobwebs, and lights those shadowed places wherein I dwell in garish fashion.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The curative to the sort of mood I’m experiencing is discipline based, for one such as myself.
Got to get out, keep on walking, shooting and ‘experiencing.’ A big part of my recent somnambularity has been weather and holiday related, but mostly it’s been Pittsburgh’s environment. We’re experiencing what the locals will often refer to as “the Gray.” Overcast, dark, cold, and wet. Bah.
The day I was taking this walk, on the other hand, offered a brief six or so hour spell of blue skies and a chance to absorb the radiates of the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself, freely spilling down from the vault in unoccluded fashion, so I took advantage.
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.
Scuttle, rinse, repeat
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another of my ‘long walk days’ arrived, and for this one I was feeling a hankering for pointing the lens at downtown Pittsburgh’s North Side.
Up the hill one scuttled, and to the T streetcar station did one shamble.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Pittsburgh’s buses come in different colors, but I cannot describe the logic behind the polychrome, as my ignorance on the subject hasn’t been punctured.
There’s a pretty extensive network of bus routes hereabouts, a municipal service which I haven’t taken advantage of yet. The unit above was sitting idle nearby the terminal stop on the T.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As always, I followed the direction my toes happened to be pointing towards, and found myself in front of Heinz Acrisure Stadium where the Steelers carry the hopes and dreams of millions upon their broad backs.
I was traveling light on this walk, with a bag full of prime lenses rather than zooms.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The stadium abuts the Three River Heritage Trail, which follows the Allegheny River, and that’s where I was heading.
This time around, my headphones were in and I was listening to an audio adaption of Stephen King’s ‘Children of the Corn.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the trail, the river, and the downtown section of the city of Pittsburgh pictured above. The Mr. Rogers memorial is on the left.
People ask: Why Pittsburgh?
Answer: this Brooklyn kid always wanted to live in Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood. Won’t you be my neighbor, you effin icehole?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The trail proceeds up the Allegheny River, away from its end at the confluence of the Three Rivers, and that’s the Fort Duquesne Bridge pictured above.
More next week…
“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.
Flats to Hills
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Today’s post is a short one, offering a few shots gathered while walking from the Birmingham Bridge to a T streetcar station found on the south side of the Monongahela River, here in Pittsburgh.
There’s a bunch of really interesting, and disturbingly heterogeneous, housing stock found in the South Side Flats area. Looks to be late 19th, early 20th to me, and are mainly ‘workers cottages.’ This neighborhood used the Philadelphia style of planning for its layout – short blocks with narrow streets and sidewalks and populated by humble row houses.
I was intrigued by the fire escape on this particular home, for some reason.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Along my path, several sets of those ‘City Steps’ were bypassed. An accommodation for Pittsburgh’s crazy terrain, these things are everywhere you look. I plan on doing some exploring of this infrastructure in the coming year.
A humble narrator made it to the station just as a ‘T’ Red Line streetcar was arriving, and I quickly boarded it for the five or so mile ride back to home. A random thought invaded, and I rode past my stop to the neighboring community of Mount Lebanon.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s a bar nearby this stop which unfailingly offers Guinness beer on tap. Ubiquitous in NYC, Guinness was always my choice of poison, and I miss being able to count on its presence in the saloons of Queens and Brooklyn. It was time for a pint, and a quick text to home summoned Our Lady of the Pentacle from her domestic comfort to join.
As the poet O’Shea Jackson would say – I gotta say it was a good day.
“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.
Sky walking, Birmingham Bridge
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
In the last post before my holiday break – during which Newtown Pentacle offered single image posts for the week twixt Christmas and the new year (Happy New Year, btw) – one was describing an interesting walk through Pittsburgh’s ‘Uptown’ neighborhood, and I was threatening to bring y’all along on a walk over the Birmingham Bridge spanning the Monongahela River here in Pittsburgh. I don’t make threats, instead they’re promises, so here we are.
To start: Birmingham Bridge is a positive infant compared to other Pittsburgh Bridges, having opened for business in 1977. Its function is to connect Uptown and the nearby Hill District (on the ‘Golden Triangle’ peninsula) with the South Side neighborhood (found on the south shore of the Monongahela River).
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s an enormous concrete outfit found on the peninsular side’s shoreline, which the Birmingham Bridge’s roughly seven stories of altitude offers a nice view of. There’s 64.8 feet of clearance below the span, and the bridge’s length is some 1,662 feet end to end.
It’s a ‘steel bowstring arch bridge,’ and Birmingham replaced an earlier structure which was called the Brady Street Bridge. Birmingham has six vehicular lanes, and there’s the combined pedestrian/bike lane on which a humble narrator claimed temporary residence during this walk.
To my understanding, there were still Steel Mills and Coke Ovens on both sides of the river when this bridge was erected – operated by the Jones & Laughlin company, but both large footprint industrial sites having since been razed and redeveloped since then.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The distance of this ‘long walk’ a humble narrator was slogging through is best described using landmarks. The T streetcar station I began my scuttling at is located beneath the 64 story U.S. Steel building, which is the tall gray structure at the top right of the shot above.
Stout, the building has become a handy navigational icon for me, which is used in the same manner that I used to employ the Empire State Building, back home in NYC.
As a note: this post is being written on Christmas Eve, and for the first time in a year – I’m actually feeling a bit homesick. I just listened to the Pogues’ “Fairytale of New York” and an actual emotion bubbled up into my sterility of thought and one of the eyes became a bit moist.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Birmingham Bridge connects to the South Side neighborhood, on the Monongahela River’s southern shore, specifically to a ‘main street’ called East Carson Street. The former footprint of the J&L steel mill in this area has been redeveloped into an incongruous mixed use development that’s called the ‘South Side Works.’ This very modern development sits alongside centuried residential buildings, which makes the somewhat ‘shopping mall’ esthetic of the South Side Works somewhat visually shocking and out of place. There are also residences in the South Side Works area that are nestled in amongst the shops, all of which seem spacious and modern, but an urban shopping mall is definitely not where I’d want to dwell.
After all those years in Astoria, what Our Lady of the Pentacle and I desire is suburbs. Trees, deer on my lawn. Quiet at night and dark, and if you hear an emergency vehicle’s siren, that’s a remarkable moment.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Saying all that, a mental picture of ‘what used to be, long ago’ is beginning to form for me here. Weird thing about Pittsburgh as compared to NYC, is that despite having hosted both British and French imperial armies at one time, and having a significant number of ‘young George Washington’ stories associated with it – most of the really interesting things about Pittsburgh start up around the time of the Civil War. NYC, Boston, and… Philadelphia… had already been crowded shitholes for better than 200 years by that point.
I was always more interested in the 1800-1960’s portion of NYC history than the colonial or modern eras, so this probably isn’t terribly surprising.
Speaking of – I gotta figure out where the spot that Lewis and Clark set out from on the Ohio River is. I’d like to see that propitious point of geography, or at least stand upon it. Touchstones, right?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Melancholy for old times, absent friends, and familiar places notwithstanding, this post was meant to simply discuss a walk over Pittsburgh’s Birmingham Bridge. It’s funny, but allowing my thoughts to drift and cast about is one of the things I enjoy so much about these long walks. Pondering while wandering?
Back tomorrow with the end of this particular adventure, which will conclude the tales of adventure and discovery during this first year in Pittsburgh. Happy New Year, lords and ladies.
“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.
