Posts Tagged ‘Allegheny River’
Ten mile scuttle, too
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Using the Three Rivers heritage trail as my path, a humble narrator was taking a very long walk in Pittsburgh recently. It’s been extremely difficult to maintain the walking schedule, given the ferocious winter weather we’ve been experiencing here in the Paris of Appalachia, throughout January. Extreme cold, lots of precipitation, winds… brrr.
When the odd day comes along that you can be outside, you take maximum advantage of that condition. At least I do. As described in the preceding post, I had a plan to wander all over the joint.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The 8th of January is the day these shots were captured. It was balmy but not freezing out, although the sky vault and sun were obscured by a solid layer of clouds. I was packing a full kit with me, and I found myself using three lenses over the course of the walk – primarily it was my 28-105 zoom, but I found spots where the 16mm f2.8 and 35mm f1.8 were required, before I made it back to HQ in nearby Dormont. I had a tripod with me but didn’t use it, just like the folding umbrella that I was also carrying.
This was a filthy black raincoat day, coupled with a fleece sweatshirt and thermal longjohns under my pants. As is my new habit, I was wearing a flash orange ball cap, an adaptation I’ve made to the usual black sackcloth that I clothe myself in normally.
It’s Hunting season, here in Western PA, and a little extra visibility is a sensible prophylactic given how much time I’m spending walking around on wooded trails. This walk was in the center of the city, where you’re not encountering gun toting woodsmen, but a little extra visibility does not hurt when you consider ‘traffic.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My principal goal for the day was to really blast out the legs with a long walk, which would see me upping my normal walking speed a bit. Given the weather, and the frequency with which my normal exercise schedule gets thwarted once the winter set in, I was determined to take advantage of the day and really lean into the walk.
Of course, I was also scouting locations for shooting sessions when things warm up a bit. Especially locations where I could pull the car over into a parking spot, and set up the camera for cool night shots.
Back tomorrow.
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A Ten mile scuttle, part one
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The weather has been absolutely awful in Pittsburgh since the new year began. Rain, snow, cold, repeat. When the weather forecast indicated that we had a day with zero precipitation on hand, a humble narrator leapt forth from HQ with the intention of taking a very long walk. I rode the T light rail to its terminal stop nearby Heinz Acrisure Stadium, and started kicking my heels about.
That’s the approach ramp to the Fort Duquesne Bridge pictured above, a steely parabola connecting one of the local interstates to a primary crossing of the Allegheny River.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the Andy Warhol Bridge – about a mile or so from the T – and one of the ‘Three Sisters’ group of bridges spanning the Allegheny River. I left the street grid there and entered a Three Rivers Heritage Trail corridor along the waterfront.
My plan was fairly simple, I would walk from the North Side terminus of the T to the 31st street Bridge where I’d cross the river, whereupon I would scuttle along the peninsular section of the City to another T stop. My original idea was to cross the Monongahela River by walking over a bridge as well, but… weather…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Next week, I’ll show you what I saw along the way on this ‘long walk.’ At least some of it at least. I got in some good scouting time for future photowalk action along the way, and burned out about ten miles worth of shoe rubber.
Back next week with more, at your Newtown Pentacle.
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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
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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.
The grass is green & the girls are pretty…
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Funnily enough, this is the same view which I was denied, here in Pennsylvania’s Oil City, due to heavy bank of fog at dawn when I first arrived – as detailed in this post. The POV above is from a small park area, called Murray’s Overlook, which I’d ‘guesstimate’ as being about 800 feet over the municipality, and the branch of the Allegheny River which snakes through it.
Oil City is a spot I’ve been wanting to check out since moving to Western PA. from NYC. As the name of the place might suggest – it’s one of several ‘oil boom towns’ which sprang up during the Pennsylvania Oil Rush during the late 19th century. This used to be the HQ location for Pennzoil, Quaker State, and Wolf’s Head Oil.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Oil City achieved its greatest population size in 1930, when it was home to about 20,000 people and had a very busy industrial maritime shoreline that handled the subterrene lakes of oil being extracted from the nearby fields. Industry and large businesses have relocated since, and thereby the population in Oil City has steadily declined over the last century from peak levels. There’s about 9,000 people living here in modernity.
The boom years left behind a stock of beautiful old buildings in the downtown historical area, a particular specimen of which will be focused in on – as a matter of fact – a bit later this week. There’s rail tracks still present in Oil City, but there’s no station anymore and the trains passing through the place are carrying freight.
Well, I guess you can ride a train for part of the year at least, the Oil City & Titusville heritage line, which was mentioned yesterday.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The town promotes its historic legacy, in an attempt to draw in tourists, and there’s wooded trails and historic districts and all kinds of stuff to explore here. We parked the Mobile Oppression Platform (MOP) in the lot of one these trails, which follows the shoreline of the Allegheny River (pictured above), and sallied forth on foot.
There’s a bunch of cool bridges here too. I have no idea which one I was standing under… umm, ok… it’s the 1990 vintage Veteran’s Memorial Bridge, which replaced an earlier 1910 version.
Apparently, an apocalypse played out hereabouts in 1892, one which wiped out the entire town – the disastrous flood and fire of June 4th and 5th. Click through for this one, I’d advise – burst dam causes a flood, naphtha and oil released into water, a yellowish fog rises, a fire starts, a boom, suddenly everything’s burning including people and animals… Here’s a second link, one with actual photos of the devastation. Here’s a third, from the Federal Agency NOAA. It’s some story, this.
The conflagration’s official tally included killing about 132 people, destroying roughly a million and a half bucks worth of private property, and largely wiping out Oil City’s waterfront. Titusville was hit by this flooding as well, and all of the bridges across Oil Creek leading into Oil City were lost.
That’s 1892 money, btw, in modernity those one and a half million dollars of loss would translate to a modern day sum of $36,627,500.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It had become quite a beautiful day by the time we returned to Oil City, my companion and I thought, after executing our quickly decided upon change of plan in the morning.
I was catching a ‘vibe,’ however, that we didn’t want to hang around here terribly long, lest the attentions of some base element catch upon us. A definite vibe of being watched from afar…
Regarding this hippy dippy ‘vibe’ thing of mine, nothing in particular set the radar off. I was just suddenly ‘aware’ of my surroundings, and something was off.
To be fair: We had zero in the way of negative interaction with others, my companion and I, but my ‘spidey sense’ was tingling. The few residents of Oil City whom we interacted with couldn’t have been nicer, in actuality. Maybe I was just tired, and fatigue was fueling my paranoia.
I think it’s smart to be a little paranoid, but I am from NYC.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At any rate, I was beginning to feel some actual physical exhaustion, after waking up so much earlier than I usually do. There were still a couple of things I wanted pics of before heading back to Pittsburgh, however. Regardless, I had about a two and change hour drive from Oil City ahead of me to get back home.
I also knew that the southeasterly drive would place the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself directly in the center of the MOP’s windshield. That’s going to suck, I thought, and Y’know what? I was right, it did – in fact – suck.
The fact that I was going to have to contend with school bus influenced stop and go traffic was also present in the brain. Additionally, just as I would be entering Pittsburgh, the evening rush hour would be getting underway.
This day trip, thereby, was nearly over.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
These six images were all ‘tripod shots,’ and the last of that sort of shooting I’d be doing this day.
From this point out, I had rigged the camera for ‘photowalk’ duty, and after stowing the tripod and other gear into my knapsack, we headed over to the historic district, where a specific structure that I wanted to get a few shots of would be found.
More on that tomorrow.
Also, about the title of this post – everytime I say ‘Oil City,’ the Guns and Roses song ‘Paradise City’ pops up in my noggin for some reason. What can I say, other than that I’m all ‘effed up.
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