South Side part 1
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
To start – this and the posts following it reflect the first time that I’ve taken a long scuttle around the South Side section of Pittsburgh. There’s been a few ‘drive by’s’ and one or two ‘drive to’s’ in the recent past, but these shots were from my first longish walk around the zone. Anything I say in these posts reflects an extremely ephemeral level of experience, and if there’s something stated which I’m wrong about – please speak up and share your knowledge with the rest of the class.
This section of the City was founded as the village of Birmingham and annexed in 1872 by Pittsburgh. The South Side is more or less the part of Pittsburgh found between the Birmingham and Liberty Bridges, along the Monongahela River. The South Side Flats neighborhood is right next door, but I couldn’t tell you where the line of demarcation between them is to save my life.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The section further east of here, closer to the Birmingham Bridge, hosted a steel mill until the 1980’s, called the Jones and Laughlin Mill. The section pictured today was a warehousing and heavy manufacturing district that was directly connected to the rail yards and tracks of the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Rail Road.
Pictured above are the Liberty Bridge on the left, and on the right is the truss bridge which allows the T light rail to access its crossing of the Monongahela at the Panhandle Bridge.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The town father of Birmingham/South Side area was apparently a fellow named Dr. Nathaniel Bedford. He laid out the streets, and when industry began setting itself up here, huge numbers of German and other Eastern European immigrants showed up. There’s a lot of very, very old buildings on display here. By Pittsburgh standard, these streets are practically flat, I would mention.
These shots were gathered on a Sunday afternoon, so the streets seemed particularly deserted except for joggers, bike riders, and me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s a pretty large scale development project which I encountered that dubs itself “The Highline.” The showrunners where consciously connect the project to NYC’s Highline, even going so far as to use a silhouette of the Manhattan Skyline on logo bearing signage.
This complex used to be called the Pittsburgh Terminal and it dates back to 1906, when it was one of the largest warehouses on the planet. The 6 story and 868,000 square foot property was sold to an outfit called McKnight Realty Partners in 2016.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There are flights of stairs everywhere you look in Pittsburgh. I climbed up this set, which had a quite pleasing combination of solidity with an easy rise and run, and I soon found myself up top.
Altitude always benefits the wandering mendicant with a camera.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was fairly sterile up there, I must say. There were cool points of view on offer, and I’ll definitely be back to take advantage of them in the future. This project reminded me a lot of the Bush Terminal redevelopments which the NYC EDC operates in South Brooklyn. Apparently, the real estate people here came to a similar conclusion as to profitable usage of the space as the EDC has, and have converted the former warehouse terminal space over to offices and for street level commercial usage.
More tomorrow, from Pittsburgh’s South Side, at your Newtown Pentacle.
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Scuttle, scuttle, scuttle
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A visit to the Heinz History Center in Downtown Pittsburgh had been undertaken by Our Lady of the Pentacle and myself recently. That’s “Heinz” as in the Ketchup people with the 57 varieties, and one of the displays at this Smithsonian affiliated museum is centered around the iconic streetcars of Pittsburgh. The unit above went out of service in 1988, and it’s designated ‘Pittsburgh Streetcar #1724.’ I’ve come to understand that the high water mark for Pittsburgh’s streetcar system was in the middle 1950’s, when there were about 600 of the sort of vehicle pictured above roaming about.
historicpittsburgh.org has a succinct description of this class of streetcar, once so ubiquitous in Pittsburgh, which can be accessed here. There used to be a serious network of public transit in these parts, in addition to the surviving inclines which get most of the modern attention. For a history of how mass transit rose and fell in Pittsburgh, check this out.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the modern day equivalent of the historic streetcar display at the Heinz Center, which is dubbed the ‘T.’ When Our Lady and I were planning the great escape from New York, transit was definitively a part of the decision matrix, so we moved into an area which the T serves. I end up driving a lot here, but there’s days when I just want to scuttle about and not be tied down to wherever I parked the car. It was on just such a day that the shot above was gathered, after having ridden the Red Line service from HQ in Dormont here to the Station Square stop nearby the Monongahela River. Pictured is a Silver Line light rail T set, which is headed the other way and out of the downtown area.
The postindustrial gentrification forge has definitively been stoked here in Pittsburgh, and a lot of real estate in the urban core is being converted to or entirely replaced by residential buildings. Saying that, it doesn’t burn as brightly or rapaciously as it does back in NYC.
The mental map which I had made for the day involved skirting along railroad tracks and some of the still industrial blocks in the Southside Flats area. After debarking the T streetcar, one began kicking the dirt while depressing the shutter button and trying to notice everything.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This area is my sort of thing, incidentally, with a web of elevated ramps for the T and vehicle traffic which lead to bridges. Huge post industrial and still industrial buildings, broken and lonely streets with a hint of danger… there’s even a set of quite busy freight rail tracks woven into the tapestry down here. Additionally, there’s many interesting points of view from which to wave the camera about.
It was a perfect day for a photowalk, with temperatures in the middle 60’s – sweatshirt weather. I left most of the gear at home, and brought a handheld camera kit with me.
More tomorrow.
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Don’t go chasing waterfalls
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
“Project flowing water” is starting to shape up a bit, as far as the camera settings thing which I’ve been talking about for a while. I won’t bore you, but I think that I’ve just about figured out to get water shots looking the way I want them to.
Obviously, there’s a whole set of approaches to the oceanic and harbor conditions of NYC that were developed over a long period of time. That’s a different kind of flowing water, though. Tidal is a lot different than running, as I’ve found out.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The same set of rock steps are in the shot above and below, which are the first ones that I’ve really been able to produce what I have in mind.
It’s actually quite complicated, getting the motion blur in some areas and seeing streaks of texture in others. If you click through to the larger incarnation of this shot at Flickr, you’ll see what I mean. Especially if you read this on your phone.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s not just exposure triangle either. There’s a bunch of ‘machinations in the field’ during capture that have to be part of the plan. Ultimately, if you’re not willing to experiment a bit, you should stick to the rivers and lakes you’re used to instead of chasing waterfalls.
LOL.
Back next week with something different, at this, your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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Unknown Country
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
“Nature wants to kill you.” You look tasty to all other creatures, and it’s probably in your best interest to just up and slaughter any animal, insect, or vegetable that you might meet – just in case, and in the name of self preservation. Additionally, there’s a reason our ancestors paved over everything. Further, who in their right mind would want to sleep in a tent – by choice when they don’t have to – in the middle of the woods where there’s bears and Sasquatchs and all kinds of crazy running around in the dark. There’s probably a cache of feral children on the loose out here, howling and scratching about amongst the trees.” That’s what I was thinking when visiting the Hollow Oaks nature trail recently.
As you may gather, a walk in a nature preserve was recently on the menu here in Pittsburgh. There were trees, and a couple of quick running streams of some sort – creeks, runs, something. My shoes became very dirty, and were soon covered in mud. The sun light… the sun light was dappled.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I was on high alert as always in case I had to engage “maximum boogey” runaway mode, and I’ll admit to scanning the tree line for evidences of that monstrous pig/dog hybrid reported to inhabit the deeply forested valleys of Western Pennsylvania which is called the Squonk. The world is a terrifying place full of existential and unknown threats, especially so in areas where nature has not been conquered and reshaped with hammers and scythes. Walls, and doors that lock, keep the Elks out when you sleep.
Seriously though, this was a really nice and low intensity trail through a protected conservation area which winds around a patch of woods and several streams, ultimately joining up with the Montour Run waterway near Coraopolis. Really nice spot, but since I’m a City Boy and anything natural is unnatural and threatening to me… it’s threatening and weird.
What if some predatory bird was to attack and try to take the eyes? Snakes… there’s actual Rattlesnakes around here too. What if I drop my car keys, how would I ever find them? What if a Deer ate my keys? I can’t chase a Deer through the woods…
I once got into a fistfight with one of those dick Canada Geese at First Calvary Cemetery in LIC, have had to fight off a raccoon in the dead of night at the Maspeth Plank Road using the legs of my tripod to fend it off, and I grew up in a neighborhood known for having packs of wild dogs roaming about (1980’s Flatlands/Canarsie.) See? Proves the point. Nature wants to kill you, or at the very least – Me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
All of the above is a composite of various statements transmitted to me by my parents whenever the subject of leaving Brooklyn for a day and going somewhere nice – “En Da Kuntree” as my Mom would screech – came up. The entire “country” storyline presented to a young but already Humble Narrator would inevitably lead to my hair getting wet causing a condition known as ‘wet head,’ resulting in me getting deathly ill as a result of the moistening, and subsequently being buried “In Dah Grownd.” The final salvo was “Is Dat Whatchu wants… yore a real icehole, don’t know who raised you but youse didn’t learn dis from me, go reads a book instead.” Before leaving the conversation about taking a walk in some sylvan glade, one would be commanded to fetch and prepare a “soda glass” filled with Diet Pepsi and 4, not 3 not 5, ice cubes.
Despite the programmed in script offered above, which is an embedded part of my source code, I actually quite enjoy a nice walk in the country these days. The ‘wet head’ threat is ameliorated through the simple prophylactic of wearing a cap. When I die, my wish is to be sealed up in a large glass ampule filled with preservatives and put on commercial display as a cautionary tale. A traveling freak show, perhaps. That is, if animals don’t get to my corpse first.
At least I’d be continuing to visit new places, in my glassy ampule.
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2 trains and a boat
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Luckily, the car needed gas. Nearby the gas station I’m currently fueling up at are a set of freight tracks which are used by the Wheeling & Lake Erie RR, pictured above. I’ve driven up to the pump and discovered this train passing by, driven away from it and witnessed the train arriving…
This time around, after topping off the tank, I parked the car in an industrial driveway and sat around in it for about a half hour, eventually getting lucky enough to catch a shot of the thing as it steamed along.
A Class 2 regional railroad, Wheeling & Lake Erie is a modern operation started in 1990 that uses the name of Jay Gould’s original 1880-1949 company. W&LE ended up becoming part of Norfolk Southern, until the larger company started selling off parts of its portfolio of assets and in 1990 the modern company was born. They serve areas of Northern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania, and now I have a photo of one of their trains. Apparently, their Engine 6982 was built in 1971, and rebuilt in 1995. It’s apparently an EMD SD40-2, but not being a true railfan – just a guy who likes to take pictures of trains – I had to look that one up.
If you disagree with make, model, etc. you’re probably right, so please share it with the rest of the class in the comments section.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I was at a fairly cool location in Pittsburgh which I’ve visited in the past – West End Overlook Park – when I noticed a CSX train hauling cargo down the Monongahela River toward its intersection with the Ohio River. That intersection is more or less in the shot above, I guess. Those orange and black shapes at bottom left are barges of coal.
Twice I got lucky with trains. Twice in one afternoon. This has been driving me nuts, as a note, being surrounded by cool railroad stuff and not having the ability to get some shots of it because I’m driving or my timing is off. There’s always something. Saying that, I’ve begun to develop an idea of when some of these trains seem most likely to come through, and where I should be lurking about to get my shots of them.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I promised a boat in the title, and there you are. There’s a towing operation based right about where the West End Bridge, pictured above, is found. As of yet, I haven’t figured out how to get down to their base and say hello. Saying that, I know where they are, so that’s some sort of progress. Things here are beginning to become “familiar.”
Back tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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The Newtown Pentacle 