Archive for the ‘Pittsburgh’ Category
Caelum ad siphona ambulans
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Continuing with a walk over the gargantuan McKees Rocks Bridge, in today’s post. As mentioned previously, everytime I’ve driven over this bridge during the last three years, it’s has been paramount in my mind that ‘I’ve got to take a walk over that thing sometime.’ The views from up here are spectacular.
In many ways, this set of views from up here are from ‘the Pittsburgh I’ve been looking for.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Ohio River waterfront is largely industrial. There’s rail tracks set in and amongst all of the structures, and some of the buildings were of a type whose purpose I couldn’t necessarily identify. Fascinating. This one is from high over the McKees Rocks shoreline side. Looks like it might be a chemical storage facility, down there, maybe.
At first I thought concrete, but there aren’t giant piles of sand and gravel anywhere in sight. The cylindrical tanks are fairly clean in appearance as well. Concrete is messy. I’ll find out eventually, as I’m definitely going to be coming back up here again.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This one looks back at the ‘Bottoms’ neighborhood of McKees Rocks. See what I mean about ‘the murder capital of Pennsylvania’? Place is neat as a pin. That isn’t what a dangerous neighborhood looks like. Economic distress I’ll buy, but dangerous? All of my ‘tells’ are absent – late model vehicles in various states of repair sitting in front yards, alongside clutter and uncollected garbage, groups of feral teenagers, abandoned homes, all of that sort of stuff.
It’s a grid based street pattern here, which is sort of rare for Pittsburgh, and most of what I was observing from above were either multiple family residential buildings, of at most three to four stories, which were surrounded by a predominance of single family homes.
Hardly anyone was out and about, but it was late on a Sunday morning when I was there.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A bit of advice I can offer at this stage of the game, gleaned by my small experience, is to not lean on bridge fences in the State of Pennsylvania if you don’t have to.
This fencing was solid, mind you, but my advice remains the same. It’s about a 100 foot drop from this spot, on the pedestrian walkway. My understanding of why PA. seldom omits a walking option for its bridges boils down to the presence of significant populations of religious atavists – Mennonites, Amish, etc. – who pay their taxes but don’t drive cars. Fair is fair.
The weather was dynamic, with a lot of movement in the skies. Bolts of sunlight would suddenly peek through, disappearing when another round of moisture shot through. From up on the bridge, you could see various distant sections of Pittsburgh getting rained on.
I remained dry, since I had carried an umbrella with me, and the perverse humor that the universe enjoys at my expense played out as I didn’t have to use the thing once. If I didn’t have an umbrella, it would have been ‘pissing down.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve walked the waterfront trail surrounding that disused penitentiary before. Check out this May of 2025 post for that, or this one from 2024. My understanding of things is that this POV is set to change fairly soon with a big mixed use real estate development that’s meant to start up nearby the confluence point of the three rivers. That’s supposed to bring a giant Ferris Wheel to the party, and demolish the former prison.
This is the moment when I realized what was directly in front of me. Nepenthe.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A sewer plant… it’s a sewer plant. I’ve missed having a sewer plant to point the lens at. Love me a sewer plant, I do.
You can take the boy away from Newtown Creek, but you can’t actually change the fella or what he loves. Sewers!
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.
Bottoms to tops
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Continuing today, with an introductory walk over the gargantuan McKees Rocks Bridge. The steel arch pictured above carries vehicular traffic, over a set of local streets and a rail yard, with the main span and arches of the bridge being found nearly a mile away at the crossing over the Ohio River. This is a major, NYC sized, bridge.
As described yesterday, I hitched a ride with Our Lady of the Pentacle and her friend Julie, who were going to be attending a pierogi festival at church here in McKees Rocks. They attended the feast, whereas I had a different sort of feast in mind.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A long zoom shot of the rail yard, looking westerly, with out of focus fencing as a bonus. CSX has offices and other facilities thereabouts. There’s a rail industry company based here, one which manufactures the ‘trucks’ or wheels of rail cargo cars. There’s also all sorts of shipping businesses which are tangentially connected to the rail yard.
There’s supermarkets and strip clubs in McKees Rocks, it’s a regular community once you cross the bridge into ‘the town.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The pedestrian walkway of the bridge brings you back down to ground before ramping back up to the main section of the bridge. This was pretty good cardio, incidentally, a long and gentle slope that plays out over about forty vertical feet. Got my pump pumping.
High fencing only occludes the views from this bridge for short intervals, notably where it overflies rail tracks. There are multiple rights of way which the bridge passes over. The high fencing is of the ‘post 911’ type whose chain link squares are only about a half inch across and are ruinous for photographic pursuits.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Up on the proper bridge, and heading towards the main arches of the thing. My plan for the day was to walk fairly close to other side of the thing, and then double back. I had about two hours to myself, and used every minute of it before I had to return and meet up with Our Lady and her friend for a ride back to HQ
I got busy.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the ‘bottoms’ neighborhood of McKees Rocks. One of those churches was where the pierogi event was occurring. The dynamics of the sky were a constant challenge, as far as exposure and light.
As mentioned in the past, McKees Rocks has a terrible reputation, including ‘murder capital of Pennsylvania.’ To my eyes, it reminded me a great deal of the 1980’s and quite Irish version of Rockaway I used to be familiar with, or of Brooklyn’s Gerritsen Beach area. An insular community of long held property owners in a somewhat distressed area, doing what they can with what they’ve got.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Me? I was heading towards the crown of the bridge, where the double arches span the Ohio River.
More on all that 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.
Bottoms and bridges
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
To start – this location has been ‘on my list’ for a while – and despite that, it just hasn’t been convenient (from a time, getting there, atmospheric lighting) point of view for me to get to.
Serendipity recently struck when Our Lady of the Pentacle announced that she and a friend would be attending a pierogi festival held at a Ukrainian Church in the area during a recent Sunday afternoon. Her friend would be driving, so I asked if I could tag along and thereby be free of having to oblige and worry about the car. Positive affirmations followed.
I’ve executed a few drive throughs of this area and have tilted my lens here and there in the past, check past posts out here. Purely scouting, though.
Welcome to McKees Rocks’ Bottoms.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It topically seems to be one of Pennsylvania’s many ‘used to be, once, long ago’ sort of places, old mill towns that persist after the mill has left, but the area seems to be very much alive and kicking. We walked around the neighborhood for a bit, prior to the start of Our Lady’s pierogi extravaganza.
I wasn’t there for the luncheon, at least not the kind you eat. My nutritionally needs could only be sated by walking upon that which I came here to see.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The McKees Rocks Bridge is a major crossing of the Ohio River, and is the longest bridge in Allegheny County. It’s a massive structure.
It carries three lanes of vehicle traffic, which first crosses over a set of busy Norfolk Southern rail tracks and then a gargantuan sewer plant to the north, then the Ohio River, whereupon it overlands into the town after overflying a rail yard on the south side.
When figuring in the ramp approaches to this monster, the bridge is 7,300 feet long. Roughly 1.5 miles, that. 100 feet high at deck level over the river. The stairs pictured above are on the McKees Rocks Bottoms, or southern, side.
Check out all its statistics at pghbridges.com. Additionally, there’s a great document from the HAER (Historic American Engineering Record) people which can be accessed here that will fill you in on all the ‘nitty gritty’ revolving around why and how this monster bridge was erected and funded in Pittsburgh, all the way back in 1929.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The stairs lead up to this arched section, where it overflies the rail yard and tracks. Those CSX trains which I often photograph down river, nearby that brewery, are all heading this way when I describe them as ‘heading towards Ohio.’ The train pictured above, #866, is heading ‘away from Ohio.’
There were no fences, you can just walk right up to the tracks. That’s very progressive, if you ask me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It has been a minor goal of mine to walk this bridge when opportunity struck, but who could have guessed it would be a pierogi festival I wouldn’t be attending that would bring me here?
Up the stairs hurtled I, the filthy black raincoat flapping about in the wind like some obscene membrane. Storms were moving through the vault of the sky, and the dynamic cloud systems surrounding the periodic bursts of rain were causing the light to change minute by minute. I was ready for the rain, just in case, with an umbrella attached to my camera bag, but it wasn’t needed in the end.
Up and at ‘em.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the main arch of the bridge, as seen in the distance. There really isn’t too much worth seeing after exiting the bridge on the other side, which places you on a narrow sidewalk, set against a de facto highway. Not exactly ‘pedestrian friendly’ over there, so I decided that my first walk over this span was going to be a ‘there and back again’ sort of affair.
This was practically a religious experience for me, scuttling over the McKees Rocks Bridge, something which I could only compare to a walk over the Kosciuszcko Bridge back home, as far as offering the camera a unique point of view.
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.
Homestead trio
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Occasion found me driving through the ragged and unmarked border between Pittsburgh’s ‘Duquesne’ and neighboring ‘Homestead.’ Both communities were once mill towns, in the age of steel. When the mills left, economic devastation and demographic collapse occurred.
That’s a Norfolk Southern locomotive pictured above, #4305. I’m led to believe it’s a rebuilt GE AC44C6M model, and originally christened as ‘NS #9171 (C40-9W)’ when it was built back in 1998.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While ‘up in the hills’ in neighboring Homestead, a series of abandoned homes caught my eye. It’s madness, how many of these there are in the greater metro area here in Pittsburgh. Good news is that the price of non abandoned homes continues to be dragged down by all of this housing stock that’s just sitting inert. There’s spots less than hour’s drive from the dead bang center of Pittsburgh where you can buy a home for under six figures. In the center of all things, it’s a bit more pricey, as you’d imagine.
Saying that, I don’t want to live in Homestead, Duquesne, or even Munhall. Too close to the still functioning steel plants, which pollute the air with sulfur dioxide (related to burning coke/coal) and it often smells like rotten eggs around these parts.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There are so many of these. Reminds me of the outer edges of Brooklyn and Queens back in the 1980’s, and of the Bronx too.
Back tomorrow with the start of an ultramundane adventure.
“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.
Ala dextra divisa
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The last steps of a fun scuttle, as detailed in prior posts, saw your humble narrator shambling towards mass transit for his ride back to HQ. A swirling confusion of black fabrics wearing an orange ball cap, adorned with a camera, one picked his loathsome way towards the Monongahela River, where egress to that light rail chariot which would carry him back to the vault in which he dwells could be attained.
The humans were avoided, while moving through their infestation.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Smithfield Street Bridge bore my bulk, and provided a path over the waters. Lament and regrets stained my thoughts, with past sleights and insults bubbling up and begging for renewed attention. I was in a mood, suddenly. Hatred and loathing. I think it’s because I scanned through one of several alerts on my phone, regarding the National position.
Everything political is busted, riddled with tumors, and the country on the whole seems to be metastasizing.
What can I do about it? Nothing. All I could and did do was continue on the way, after burning out a couple of hours worth of walking time. Bah!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I had hoped that another train might approach, and hung around on Smithfield Street Bridge for a few minutes, in vainglory. Just after I gave up and started heading across the river, however…
…and of course…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
CSX appeared again, this time it was CSX #4766. I’ve noticed that freight trains seem to have been getting shorter in recent months, which is a ‘tell’ for how the macro/non Financial Industry side of the national economy is doing. Back in NYC, my barometer for ‘good or bad’ was always based on activity at Port Elizabeth Newark, rather than the booms and busts on Wall Street.
I asked Google’s AI for some detail on Port Elizabeth Newark:
Port Newark/Elizabeth Specifics
- Economic Engine: The Port of New York and New Jersey, which includes the facilities in Newark and Elizabeth, is a major economic engine. A study released in October 2025 highlights the port industry’s role in supporting over 580,000 jobs and generating substantial tax revenue.
- Infrastructure Investment: The Port Authority has made significant capital investments in the area, including the $3.6 billion 2025 Capital Spending Budget which funds projects like the Port Newark Port Street Corridor roadway network project. These investments are intended to accommodate future growth and maintain the port’s status as a leading maritime gateway.
- Cargo Activity: The port has shown strong cargo activity, recording strong growth in April 2025 (latest data available in search results). In May 2025, it was the nation’s busiest cargo gateway.
- Challenges: The port may face some operational challenges in Q4 2025, including potentially elevated dwell times in Newark and mild congestion, which could slow cargo movement. Low water levels in the St. Lawrence River might also affect inland irregular flows.
In summary, while the regional economy is facing headwinds with slower overall growth and a softer job market, the port operations themselves are stable, seeing continued cargo volume and benefitting from ongoing strategic infrastructure improvements.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On the other side of the river, one began picking his loathsome path towards the T light rail station a few blocks away. There’s a series of not exactly pedestrian friendly crossings one must negotiate to get to the relative safety of one of the waterfront trails, which then leads right to it.
I was keeping my eyes open for Day Vampires, Drug Enthusiasts, Pickup Trucks, Canada Gooses, Packs of Teenagers, and all the other perceived threats to my happiness which might light my amygdala afire.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Along this path, I noticed a right wing which had been dislocated from its owner. Odd.
Back next week with something different – at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“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 