Herr’s Island soliloquy
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The atmosphere had warmed up considerably since the start of this particular walk that a humble narrator had initiated. It was quite humid, and after a long interval of inactivity, this scuttle was grinding me down physically. I followed the Three Rivers Heritage Trail along the Allegheny River and soon found myself crossing a former rail bridge onto ‘Herr’s Island.’
A former stockyard dedicated to the slaughter and dismemberment of animals for the grocery trade, this landform has been redeveloped and largely gentrified with row homes and an office park. Luckily, there’s a bar/restaurant on the island where I was able to purchase a glass of orange juice and also received a free glass of water with my purchase. I sat my stinking pre-corpse down for a few minutes, and allowed a few of the knots in my lower back to uncoil while quaffing the iced liquids. I also took advantage of their lavatory, which was clean and welcoming. I was in a full sweat, and growing increasingly sore.
A voice in the back of my head kept on saying ‘you’re too warm, you need to get out of the sun.’ A louder internal voice said ‘Soldier on.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’d soon be walking over that bridge pictured above, which is called the 31st street bridge. It was my pre-decided ‘turnaround’ point, about four and change miles from where I had debarked the T light rail, nearby the sportsball stadiums. I had one goal to hit though, which was to see what the north eastern extant of this island looked like. On, did I scuttle.
When I was walking the riverfront trail in Millvale a few weeks back, my curiosity was stoked about this section of Herr’s Island. Turns out that there are tennis and pickleball courts on this side of the island, and an office park which houses several governmental and private entities.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There was a section where you could get down to the water, but I didn’t head down those steps. There was a young woman sunbathing down there, and I can’t imagine how creepy it would have seemed if some sweaty and limping old homunculus with a camera just appeared and started cracking out photos. The human infestation is everywhere, and I always have to worry about mobs of peasants with pitchforks.
Now, regarding the physical state that I soon found myself in…
Back tomorrow.
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No scuttle, no peace
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Pictured above is an Allegheny Valley Railroad train set negotiating itself over the Fort Wayne railroad bridge, which spans the Allegheny River and the train is heading towards Downtown Pittsburgh. This bridge, and the particular direction that the AVRR train is heading, lead to a set of tracks in the center of the city which Amtrak and Norfolk Southern also use to head eastwards.
As mentioned a few times in this story, this scuttle was playing out on a warm day, and a humble narrator had spent the couple of weeks prior sitting on his butt at home. I was not enjoying the humidity or warmth as I haven’t fully acclimated away from winter yet, and in my defense it was forty degrees not two days before these shots were gathered. I was thereby in a full sweat, and every step was increasingly an act of will even though the first mile of my intentions had barely been expressed.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One was scuttling along the section of the Three Rivers Heritage Trail which is found on the north shore of the Allegheny River. It’s not exactly a demanding route, given that it’s graded and paved, but after my long somnolent period – agony. My back hurt, and so did my butt. I was sweating profusely and not feeling so great. The drill is to lean into it, tough it out, and get past thoughts of discomfort though. You can sit and whine about it at home later, I told myself. It’s not like you have a choice about exercise, it’s a requirement.
While pedantically negotiating with my lizard brain, I couldn’t help but notice a little blue house which seemed to be the sole survivor of a lost civilization, nearby the former Heinz Factory.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The trail is well wooded, and there are long intervals during which you’re marching through a tunnel of trees and vegetation. That’s nice.
Last time that I scuttled through here during the early winter, there were dozens of homeless encampments observed along the path – tents and lean to’s surrounded by middens of garbage. I’ve heard that the gendarmes were sent in to clear the area of such habitations, and the effort seems to have been successful at accomplishing its stated goal. I do wonder where all the street people have moved on to, though.
Right about when I was shooting the photo above at a clearing in the wall of vegetation, of a tug and barge doing some sort of construction duty with a ‘Dick’s Sporting Goods’ advertising blimp overhead, that’s when I really started craving some sort of hydration. I seldom carry a water bottle with me, and my NYC born habit always involves the statement that ‘I’d stop at a bodega somewhere and grab a Gatorade or something.’
The problem with Pittsburgh, as I’ve discovered, is they ain’t got no bodegas out here. It’s ‘car country’ and the best you’re going to do is find a gas station with a convenience store attached to it or happen across some random 711 or McDonald’s, but those are far and few between.
Back tomorrow.
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River, & Towboat, Allegheny
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A humble narrator was at the start of one of his long constitutional scuttles recently, here in Pittsburgh, and my route for the day involved walking on the Allegheny River’s shoreline and the Three Rivers Heritage Trail. That’s the Fort Duquesne Bridge pictured above.
The light was fairly extraordinary, with the atmospherics involving temperatures of about 75 degrees (and rising), coupled with a fairly high dew point and concurrent level of humidity. A strong storm was brewing to the west, but at this moment in time it was Ohio which was bedeviled by it and Pittsburgh wasn’t going to get walloped by it anytime before midnight.
Speaking of bedeviled, a long interval of inactivity – lasting about two weeks – was being punctured by this walk, and your humble narrator was suffering from stiffened muscles in the back and legs.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Towboat activity on the Ohio and Monongahela Rivers is a common sight, but less so on the Allegheny. A Towboat, named for the river, suddenly appeared navigating towards the confluence of the three rivers and was towing a fuel barge. As mentioned last week, I had decided to constrain my photographic pursuits by bringing a series of fixed focal length prime lenses with me instead of zoom lenses. I affixed my 85mm lens to the camera.
Why?
Intentionality, that’s why. This may sound like wanker talk here, but there’s a different ‘process’ at work in the way that you perceive the environment when you spot something interesting and you have to quickly ‘do the math’ on which lens to use, as opposed to the ability to dial a zoom lens up and down its range. Additionally, the primes are considerably less of a carry than the larger and heavier zooms. As mentioned above, I was feeling stiff and didn’t want to carry a series of three pound glass and metal bricks with me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Towboat Allegheny navigated into the navigational channel under the Fort Duquesne Bridge. I couldn’t find a reliable history for this boat, as there seems to have been several towing vessels with the call sign ‘Allegheny’ launched over the centuries, including a U.S. Navy one.
The Port of Pittsburgh is actually quite an important inland port, as it turns out, a statement which will probably make all my ‘blue water’ sailor friends back in NYC laugh out loud. From here at the ‘Pittsburgh Pool,’ the United States Army Corps of Engineers maintains lock and dam maritime connections which lead to the Great Lakes, the Ohio River, and eventually you can even make it all the way to the Mississippi River.
Who knew?
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Wide angle scuttle
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After riding the T light rail through the city center of Pittsburgh, as detailed yesterday, a humble narrator decided to affix a wide angle lens to the camera for the start of what I had planned on being a longish walk. The lens was 16mm, before you ask. This was one of the days where I leave the heavy zoom lenses at home, and head out with a ‘bag of primes.’
Prime lenses are fixed at certain focal lengths, as opposed to zooms which allow for multiple focal lengths. I had my 85mm, 50mm, 35mm in the bag, and the 16mm which the camera was wearing during this part of the day. I also had a tripod with me, but didn’t need or use it in this section of my afternoon. Before the day was done, I’d rotate throughout the collection.
It was warm in Pittsburgh, about 75 degrees, and characteristically humid. The weather report will figure into my tale from later in the day, but at this juncture everything was just swell.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As often mentioned, I’m fascinated by the parabolic and arcing shapes created by highway ‘on and off’ ramps, an urban feature which Pittsburgh has no shortage of. This particular bit of infrastructure pictured above and below offers vehicle traffic egress to the Fort Duquesne Bridge, which connects the north shore of the Allegheny River to the so called ‘golden triangle’ of Downtown. They also overfly the massive parking lots which surround the sportsball stadiums.
Now, for a mundane variety of reasons I had largely spent the two weeks prior to this doing absolutely nothing, outside of HQ. All the reasons are salubrious, but those 14 days of sitting around would bite me hard later in the day. I’m not used to being ‘still’ for too long, and thereby my lower back and legs were quite stiff, and it took me almost a mile to find a comfortable rythym for the walk.
I was determined, however, to get in a decent workout of about ten miles. If only…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Regardless of intention, I was enjoying the 16mm wide angle shooting, which is something I’m still getting acclimatized to using. I made a right turn, heading southwards towards the Allegheny waterfront and its welcoming trail. The plan was pretty simple, which was to walk the trail all the back about three and change miles, cross a bridge, and then double back on the other side.
Best laid plans…
Back next week with more at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
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Light Rail Hullabaloo
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Transit was one of the deciding factors behind where Our Lady of the Pentacle and I decided to put down roots here in the Pittsburgh metroplex. Yes, we’ve got a car and use the thing frequently, but one such as myself has a distinct preference for being able to leave the automobile in the driveway occasionally.
The Pittsburgh Regional Transit people, aka the ‘PRT,’ operate a light rail service – called ‘The T’ – on the skeletal remains of Pittsburgh’s once far flung trolley system. The residential section we settled in enjoys this service and I ride it often, especially so on days when I’m taking the camera out for a walk. It frees me up to partake in a pint of beer or two after the walk is over, and allows egress to the core of the city without having to worry about parking or getting back to where I parked after scuttling about for miles and miles. I like it, and think it’s neat.
As mentioned a month or two ago, there’s a series of maintenance projects that PRT is performing this summer on the T service which has introduced a fairly random series of steps into riding the thing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Under normal circumstance, one boards the service at a dedicated stop in my town (Dormont, which is technically a ‘Borough’). The light rail unit moves along a set of tracks with a variety of conditions – street running, dedicated and separated from vehicle traffic rights of way, underground subway style tunnels, and then back to an elevated right of way track at the terminal end nearby the stadiums on Pittsburgh’s north side. This trip is normally about 25-30 minutes long.
The phase of work that PRT has begun involves the subway section of the service, which lurks beneath the office buildings and towers of the downtown section. The light rail thereby diverts to a normally shuttered facility in the downtown area called ‘Penn Station.’
Said facility is across the street from the former HQ of the actual Pennsylvania Rail Road, a magnificent building which has been converted over to luxury residential usage. At Penn Station, T riders are encouraged to debark the rail units.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The street which Penn Station is found on is the approach to one of several ‘Busway’ corridors that snake through the Pittsburgh metro, and there’s a series of switches and tracks back there where the T can ‘turn around.’ There’s also what seems like a bus depot, but this isn’t a public byway so I can’t really say. They don’t actually turn around the T’s, I’d mention, the operator simply switches from the controls at one side of the unit to the other for the reverse trip.
There seems to be an intellectual tug of war going on with the people who care about public transit here in southwestern PA, between investing in and expanding the bus system or doubling down on the T. Advocacy arguments in favor of one or the other both have validity and solid reasoning, to my ear. There’s also a social justice factor which has to be added to the argument, as Pittsburgh’s ‘communities of color’ are largely supported by the bus network, rather than the limited corridors of the T which run through mostly suburban areas.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Personally, I think rail is the cooler choice (especially so if you’re suffering from a disability), but it doesn’t mean that it’s the best fiscal or political decision for municipal investment. The buses offer a much greater range and versatility as far as servicing the more far flung sections of Pittsburgh, for instance, and provide reach into communities which are experiencing economic hard times and providing a pipeline of access to the employment possibilities of downtown, and the stadium area with all of its service sector jobs. It’s also fairly easy and relatively cheap to increase bus saturation, as opposed to rail.
The light rail, on the other hand, is far more reliable than the buses – but the upfront costs of acquiring land, building the tracks, and populating the rails with passenger units is frightening. Saying that, there’s parts of Pittsburgh that the T doesn’t touch by design, which is somewhat baffling. The Oakland section with its multitudes of college students, for instance, would benefit massively from T service. So too would areas with functional but unused tracks like Allentown and the South Side Slopes.
There’s also ‘hot’ real estate zones like Lawrenceville which are entirely dependent on buses instead of rail, which is goofy.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At any rate… my drill right now involves riding the T from home to Penn Station, debarking the train and crossing a street to catch a rail shuttle bus. The shuttle bus subsequently stops at the two stations which have been isolated due to the reconstruction work (they’re replacing the concrete plinths which the actual rails are anchored into) that is underway.
The bus snakes through downtown Pittsburgh, whereupon it drops you off at another rail station at the end of the T’s Subway section, and then you board another T unit to complete the journey. I didn’t ’stopwatch’ the trip, but in estimation it took about 25 minutes longer for me to get from ‘A’ to ‘B’ than it normally had.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The shuttle bus carries you to another station, whereupon you ride an escalator down to the platform level and board another train set. This unit accomplishes the final two stops on the service, including the terminal stop on the north shore of the Allegheny River nearby Acrisure Stadium. Personally, I found the entire thing quite interesting, but I’m a known transit nerd, ‘out and proud.’
Things are about to get even more interesting for me at the end of May, when the concrete plinth replacement project rises up out of the tunnels beneath downtown and begins nibbling up the dedicated right of way and street running sections of the service closer to home. That’s meant to take about three months, according to the PRT, which will be followed by a long timeline project that’s meant to rehabilitate the bridge which the T uses to cross the Monongahela River. That should be a pretty interesting situation to take shots of.
The PRT’s plan is to run buses on the route during the construction, which lends some weight to the argument offered by proponents of doubling down on road vehicle oriented transit in the area. This, of course, risks increasing vehicle congestion and air pollution.
It’s going to be interesting to see which side wins out, in the end.
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.
The Newtown Pentacle 