Terere tempus
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After a short walk on a very hot day, one took up his now familiar station at the Sly Fox Brewery found in Pittsburgh’s South Side Flats section.
A couple of enormous terminal buildings there create a puddle of shadow, in which one can shelter from the burning thermonuclear eye of God itself. Also, there’s cold beer and outside seating.
A grade crossing nearby hosts the typical sort of rail signal arms that ring bells and flash lights when activating, so you’ve got a good couple of minutes to get into position and figure out the exposure triangle before a train comes through.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Luckily, this was a busy time of day for CSX , and multiple trains were crossing through the POV. First it was #3316 pictured in the first shot, followed by #5432 above. The T light Rail is out for the summer due to maintenance, and whereas a shuttle bus is being offered in its lieu, I had already decided to splurge on an air conditioned cab to get back to HQ. By splurge, I mean spending about $13 plus tip.
I paid my tab, walked back outside, and summoned a ride.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While waiting, CSX #3254 suddenly appeared. Lucky capture.
Back next week with something different at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
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Mortuus ambulans
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the Smithfield Street Bridge, here in Pittsburgh, pictured above.
I crossed back over the Monongahela River here, after having walked over the Birmingham Bridge previously. The corridor I was heading for on the other side has become one of my favorites for a photowalk. It’s where my original ‘long walk’ plan would have taken me, just with an extra five miles of scuttling thrown in.
Lots of rail action there, downtown Pittsburgh as a backdrop, and shadowed by the elevations of Mount Washington. Sweet.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While crossing the river, the Towboat Haley Michelle was passing by, couldn’t resist a shot of its passage.
My plan at this point was to head over to the Sly Fox Brewery – as it’s called – and grab a Pilsner, then hang out for an hour or so hoping to catch some passing rail traffic.
I’ve zeroed in on a model of radio scanner which I’m planning on purchasing. It’ll let me know whether or not anything might be heading my way when I’m lurking about – but this purchase is an act which will move me dangerously close to railfanning.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At the moment, I’m still depending on pure luck, as I was when CSX’s #4050 suddenly appeared and screamed right past me.
More tomorrow.
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Ebrius est calor
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That abandoned structure pictured above, found in Pittsburgh’s ‘Uptown’ section, feels like it might be my spirit animal.
One was scuttling along on a dangerously warm afternoon, guzzling water from a flask that I now carry religiously. I had a bit of a trek ahead of me, but had downgraded the breadth of the route due to the fierce weather. A plan was hatched, and a new destination and path decided upon.
It still surprises me how many abandoned structures there are here – not just in Pittsburgh – but in the many communities that cluster around the city. After the steel industry pulled up stakes, the population collapsed.
Apparently, it’s quite a palaver to try and do anything with these properties – due to red tape, politics, etc.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One leaned into it, and soon found myself heading towards my new goal.
There’s a long stretch of fairly empty buildings and barren streetscapes to cross, between my spirit animal house nearby the Birmingham Bridge, and the downtown area. This is the very edge of the Downtown section, quite nearby the court houses and City Hall.
Some kid walked over to me, who appeared to be a creature of the streets, and scolded me for taking a photo which she thought she was in. ‘You have to ask permission to take somebody’s photo,’ she said. Rather than get into an argument with her, I just said that I didn’t take a photo of her, which I didn’t, and she sauntered away probably looking for someone else to annoy and boss around.
Lots of ad hoc constitutional scholars out there, these days.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My short term goal is pictured above, the Smithfield Street Bridge over the Monongahela River. Given the atmospheric conditions, I decided that my best course of action would be to find some shady but photogenic spot where I might spy some passing Railroad action.
That brewery I like on the other side of the river, thereby, became my next walking target.
More 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.
Perdidit in civitate aliena
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described yesterday, an attempt at a long walk, on a very hot day, saw me circumcising the effort down to a short walk. You’ve got to acknowledge and respect the environmental conditions.
These shots are from where Pittsburgh’s Birmingham Bridge meets the ‘Uptown’ section of the city. There’s an emergency bridge reconstruction project underway hereabouts, a project which was spurred on by the collapse of the nearby Fern Hollow Bridge in 2022 and a raft of Federal funding.
I love this sort of chaotic place. The construction guys and gals are artists and they don’t even realize it, with all of the signs, and the high visibility gear, and the tarps cladding the job sites.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Looking through the bridge’s ramps, that curving roadway leads towards the Oakland neighborhood with its universities, museums, churches, and other cultural centers. The lower ramp carries I-279 out toward the Squirrel Hill Tunnel, and then continues to points east. The bridge receiving the emergency repairs is the one with the tarps on it, quite obviously.
Infrastructure, amirite?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Right after this shot was gathered, my phone came out of the pocket and the planned route went out the window. I figured out a more wholesome pathway which wouldn’t put me at risk of heat stroke, but there was no way that I wasn’t going to be cooking in the sun for a bit.
A humble narrator was screwed in terms of shade, given where I was, and I’d just have to suck it up and walk in the direct sunlight for at least a mile. Thing about ‘back home’ was that – with very few exceptions – multi story buildings cast broad shadows that you can use that to your advantage on hot days. Large structures also cast ‘rain shadows,’ but I digress…
I pulled the brim of that Costco brand $15 bucket style hat I’ve been wearing low down over my face, and then just leaned into it.
Back tomorrow.
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Sine fine ambulant
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Alright… in retrospect… it was dumb of me to say ‘yeah, it’s hot out, but that’s no big deal.’ Regardless – it was exercise day, for both the hollowing meat puppet that supports my brain and the camera too, and despite climatological conditions which could be described as a ‘reverse blizzard,’ one set out for a long walk. Within a couple of hours, that was amended to a short walk instead.
Pittsburgh is famously humid. The CBS news station hereabouts has a humidity chart they show, when reporting the weather, which has a top range that is labeled as ‘ridiculous.’ Given the national heat wave’s eye watering temperatures out west, we were lucky that it was only in the middle 90’s here in the Paris of Appalachia, but factor in that ‘ridiculous humidity’ and my utterly fantastic decision to start this walk in the late afternoon… it was ‘shvitzy’ out there.
I’m a real complaint department these days, ain’t I?
Pictured above is the Birmingham Bridge, over the Monongahela River, which I was intent on walking across for some reason.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Pure existential misery is what a humble narrator was experiencing. ‘Heat island effect’ was in full force, and the concrete that I was walking on was radiating a hundred and change degrees of heat straight up, while the warrior sun above beat down mercilessly on my $15 Costco brand bucket style fishing hat. The air quality and dew point level was such that if you were to wave your hand through the air, it would be wet by the end of the effort. Yuck.
Regardless, I couldn’t help but grab a shot or two of these blokes guiding their boats onto trailers. There are many, many spots close to the downtown area here in Pittsburgh where you can put a boat in the water.
The spot in the photo above, for instance, is in a public park. That’s kind of awesome, if you ask me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On the other side of the river from where I started, and where that park is, there’s an enormous concrete plant which can observed from above. This plant sits in part of the footprint of a ‘used to be, once, long ago’ steel mill called the Eliza Furnace. I-279 is the highway riding on the cliff behind the plant.
These people seemed pretty busy, and there’s a bridge reconstruction project happening all around their operation.
It was a lot hotter out than I thought it would be, and by this point I was already thinking about where I wasn’t going to be walking to. My original plan was about twelve miles long and involved a wide ranging bit of scuttling about. In the end this was a just under five mile long walk.
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.
The Newtown Pentacle 