Posts Tagged ‘Allegheny River’
Lock and Dam too, Allegheny River
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The 1932 vintage Allegheny River Lock and Dam No. 2 (aka Highland Park Lock and Dam) along the Allegheny River drew my interest recently. The St. Patrick’s day flood of 1936 in Pittsburgh, which is part of the same climatological event that drowned nearby Johnstown, resulted in a lot of Federal attention to the rivers surrounding Pittsburgh. The United States Army Corps of Engineers got busy planning a solution after the Flood Control Acts of 1936 and 1938 were passed by Congress. The USACE realized flood control over the Allegheny River after the Kinzua Dam was completed in 1965. Of course, they’ve got three rivers to worry about here (four, actually) and there’s similar USACE infrastructure found on both the Ohio and Monongahela Rivers.
It seems that the USACE design creates about 24 miles of level navigable water on the three rivers, which is referred to as the “Pittsburgh Pool,” and the water level is meant to be some 710 feet above sea level. When a ship navigates into this particular Allegheny River lock, it’s raised or lowered 11 feet from the pool’s altitude depending on direction. There’s a long series of these fixed crest dams and boat locks on the Allegheny River leading all the way back to the Kinzua Dam, which is on the New York side of Pennsylvania’s northern border.
Pennsylvania is wild, man.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After becoming interested in this sort of infrastructural goodness, I began the usual scouring of Google maps’ satellite views for potential locations from which I could get a look at the thing in action and maybe even set up the tripod for a few “low and slows.”
That sounds bad, doesn’t it? I mean long exposure, tripod mounted landscape shots, not any of the things you could slot “low and slow” into. Aww, that sounds even worse…
“Highland Park Dam Overlook” is what it says this spot is called on Google maps, and after following a Google street view truck’s ride into the area, I decided that this would be the first of several nearby spots where I’d try to find some points of view and maybe the odd natural composition or two.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The furthest out into the water, and the closest clear shot of the Lock and Dam I could get near in this Overlook section, was literally the spot pictured above – on a chunk of what was probably 90 year old concrete sticking out into the Allegheny River. The 1937 vintage bridge in the shot is called the Highland Park Bridge.
I did walk down to the gates of the USACE compound which operates the machinery of the lock, but it was all chain link with barbed wire with security cameras there. I made a mental note to try and charm the pants off of whomever is in charge of this stuff and strive to get some future access for photos from them. I’ve done it before.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I had to drive a bit of a circuitous route to hit my list of “POV’s,” and since something else that I wanted a look at was found along this route, I diverted away from my lock and dam fever for about an hour. More on that tomorrow.
One arrived at another previously remote scouted location for the point of view above after the diversion. That dark line in the water is a fixed crest dam, a concrete structure in the water column which introduces an 11 foot drop in elevation to the Allegheny River. The USACE maintains a minimum depth of nine feet for the Allegheny, it’s deeper in many places, but that’s a lot of water cascading about.
I had a couple of other locations marked down, including a few other potential points of view on the opposite shoreline. I hopped into the Mobile Oppression Platform and crossed the Highland Park Bridge, heading into the community of Sharpsburg.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Somebody probably wasn’t supposed to be where he was, while shooting these last two shots. Saying that, the property definitely seemed to be out of business or abandoned, but the former occupants left their “no trespassing” signs behind. That’s my story. I pulled the MOP over, cracked out a couple of shots, and then moved on.
The scouting area I’ve been looking at and writing about, since relocating to Pennsylvania, forms a rough circle with circumference points no further than a 30 minute drive from HQ, which is located about 4.5 miles from Downtown Pittsburgh. Using HQ as the center of that circle, I’ve been exploring triangular “pizza slice” sections of the new surroundings, slice by slice. Nerd.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I was too far away to get a decent shot of it, but right after this shot, a tug and barge appeared and began to navigate into the lock. Wow.
As mentioned, in yesterday’s post, we’ve had a run of wet and snowy weather here in Pittsburgh for the last week. I know this is shocking news for late January. All the shots you’re seeing in this week’s six picture posts were frenetically gathered in a single day. Whew!
More tomorrow, from the Paris of Appalachia, at 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.
back to West End Overlook Park
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On December 29th, a humble narrator negotiated his way back to the West End Elliot Overlook Park in the Elliot section of Pittsburgh in the late afternoon. I offered a couple of shots I’d captured up here at dawn last week, but even while I was shooting those I was thinking “I have to come back here at sunset, this “view” is a sunset thing.” Also mentioned last week, sunset in Pittsburgh isn’t a couple of hours long like it is in NYC, with its oceanic skies. Due to the geography here, the setting sun casts the hard shadow of Mount Washington across the confluence of the three rivers and the city’s center midway through its descent.
One got to the spot in West End with plenty of time to spare and set up my gear. I had a nice conversation with some kid from the surrounding neighborhood, who was imbibing the devil’s cabbage and chilling out. He was the first of several folks I interacted with while shooting.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the West End Bridge over the Ohio River, lit up all sexy like in the shot above. I had erroneously called it the McKees Rocks Bridge in a prior post but received a correction in the comments from one of you brilliant people.
Alexander McKee, for whom McKees Rocks and both the eponymous bridge and the nearby community of McKeesport are named for, was an early trader based in this region, whom initial research reveals as having displayed a surprisingly modern point of view towards the “First Nation” Native Americans that populated this part of the continent.
At any rate, while I was waiting for the sky and sun to align to my liking, and the local kid whom I was chatting with had departed, I began twisting my tripod head around. “Up, down, all around,” that’s one of my mottoes. A passing couple struck up conversation with me next. They were wearing Steelers gear, and told me that they were “Yinzers” or Pittsburgh “born and bred’s” who had moved out to “the country” a couple of decades ago and were “in town” for a few days to see a theatrical show and attend a sports ball game.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Off in the distance, I spotted the Allegheny Observatory which I had described to you – lords and ladies – a couple of weeks ago. As mentioned in that post, I’m attempting to visit the prominences surrounding the three rivers’ valleys to try and develop a sense of spatial relationship. When you’re driving along on the many, many high speed roads that transect Pittsburgh, it is fairly impossible to do so.
I’ve mentioned that there’s a different “etiquette” as far as driving here, as in with the “Pittsburgh Left,” but there’s also a very different polity at work on the roads. They don’t honk quite as much here, but it’s fairly common for somebody to crawl right up your butt if they think you’re driving too slowly. “Too slowly” in this area means you’re only exceeding the speed limit by 20-30%. Following distance is one of the most important thing to be aware of when driving on a highway. For every ten miles of speed, maintain at least one car length of space between you and the car in front of you. If you needed to jam down on and lock your brakes to screech to a complete stop, the minimum amount of space you’d need to come to a complete stop is one car length per ten miles of speed. Yup – that’s close to a hundred feet at 55 mph, which sounds crazy and unrealistic but isn’t. When I can see the brand of sunglasses you’re wearing in my rear view mirror, that’s way too close. Also…
I’m seriously having to learn a new style of performance driving around here, with the crazy hills and the serpentine curves that bend around prominences or along cliffs. Lots of hidden driveways as well, with blind turns happening at high speed, there’s highway exits that appear out of seemingly nowhere, stop signs on highway entrance ramps… a dynamic driving environment, Pittsburgh is.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
See what I mean about that hard sunset shadow cast by Mount Washington? One hung about at the park overlook, and some woman with a very enthusiastic dog arrived and set herself up nearby to play some sort of steel drum like instrument as the burning thermonuclear eye of God itself disappeared. I was enjoying the jam she was playing and decided that I’d like to stick around until the lights in Pittsburgh came on.
Since I’m a suburban asshole now, I feel like I should refer to this downtown section as “The City” but there’s only one place which I’ll ever use that term for and it’s 400 miles diagonally east and north of here.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This post is being written at the end of the first week of January, and it was literally this morning that – for the first time in 5 weeks – I actually had a fond “miss that” thought about NYC. It was bagel related. The bagels here are strange and anemic little things.
Thankfully, Pittsburgh actually has decent Pizza. Finding a pizzeria that does slices is a bit of a deal (they do 8” personal pizzas instead), but the local Pizza is actually pretty good. They tend to overdo it with toppings, giving into the tendency in this part of the country to throw every kind of meat you can imagine on top of the thing, but the thick crust is nice. Thankfully, it’s not the abrogation of all that’s right which… Philadelphia… calls Pizza.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This shot was the one I was waiting around for, and soon after shooting it I decided to get out of dodge and back to HQ in neighboring Dormont. This decision was influenced by the dynamic driving environment mentioned above, as I don’t feel at all confident driving around at night around here and won’t until I get to know these roads and their peculiarities a bit better.
I had a rare moment of spare time, in between “have-to’s” and rainy days, so I decided to try and make the most of an unusually warm week in Pittsburgh over the first few days of 2023. My reward for the efforts of December and November was the few days I had to explore, I’d posit.
More tomorrow 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.
a day in the neighborhood
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
First off, when you’re driving through Pittsburgh and you want to stop and get out of your car, you can find a metered parking spot pretty easily. As in, you drive somewhere and there one is. They use an electronic system here, one where you go to a nearby kiosk, enter your license plate information, and then pay your due. They also use coin meters here and there, but there you go. It’s mostly the kiosk version downtown, by my very limited observation. As a former New Yorker, this is a startling innovation to me.
When you leave an abusive relationship, normal courteousness seems revelatory to you.
Coming back from the Allegheny Observatory, I stopped off at the river it’s named for, and set up the tripod to take advantage of the late afternoon lighting. That’s downtown Pittsburgh pictured above.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I found myself a slightly elevated location to shoot from where I wouldn’t have to worry too much about watching my back. This allowed me to concentrate on what I was doing. The entire time I was shooting, I was hearing the words and songs of Fred Rogers, as in Mr. Rogers. “I like you just the way you are,” “everybody is special,” and so on. I wasn’t going crazy, instead I was at the Mr. Rogers memorial!
I should mention that I love Fred Rogers, and if you’re Generation X as I am, you probably do as well. That guy…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
In the American culture, we venerate warriors and businessmen and killers and sports heroes, generally. It’s not often that someone rises to the top of the heap for being kind to children. Rogers was a Pittsburgh native, and his show was produced at the local PBS station – WQED. A friend of mine who’s lived here for a few decades described seeing Mr. Rogers regularly at a local supermarket in the Squirrel Hill section where they both lived, and often overheard him talking to kids – “you seem very smart… I bet you know how to spell Broccoli, don’t you?” was the gist of how he described those encounters to me.
The monument to Mr. Rogers is wired for sound, and plays a repeating reel of him singing, and his various sayings. Fantastic!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I had set myself up for “landscape” mode with the camera, shooting “low and slow” as I describe it. This is when I feel “creative” while shooting, rather than just being a shutter monkey. The problem you encounter with this setup – which involves a filter and a series of settings designed to reduce the amount of light moving through the lens – is when something is entering the frame and suddenly you want to capture it, without it going all motion blurry.
That’s the Fort Pitt Bridge and the entrance to the Fort Pitt tunnel which pierces Mount Washington pictured above.
Luckily, I’ve learned to be prepared for this change of circumstance when the camera is in landscape mode by the University of Newtown Creek, and I can be shooting “fast” images within about 20 seconds of rapid dial twisting and settings adjustments and without having to remove the filter or otherwise alter the operation.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I saw both the freight train and the tugboat coming together from opposite sides of the frame, and managed to pop off this shot.
It was time to head back home to Dormont. I packed up the gear, hopped back in the wheels, and made a decision that I was going to rely solely on my own sense of direction to get back to HQ rather than use any sort of navigation software. I’m going to come back to this spot at dawn sometime soon.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On my way, I hit a small patch of rush hour traffic wherein the vehicle and I were only traveling at about 20 mph through downtown Pittsburgh. Heh. Traffic… what was that I was saying about abusive relationships?
I got stuck at a few traffic lights during this interval, but I popped open the moon roof on the car and took advantage of that on the way.
More next week, from the Paris of Appalachia, 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.
unexampled flight
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Onboard a Gateway Clipper excursion boat, here in Pennsylvania’s Pittsburgh, the Captain navigated us around the “Point” of the Golden Triangle and off of the Monongahela River and onto the Allegheny River. Pictured is the confluence of the “Three Rivers” where the two form the one and the Ohio River begins.
That fountain above is the centerpiece of Point State Park, and was discussed in a prior post dubbed “certain circumstances.” When I was here, on Day One of my 72 hours in Pittsburgh, it was nighttime. The shots in today’s post are from Day Two.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Pictured above are, from the top – the Fort Duquesne Bridge (also briefly profiled in the post linked to above), and the three smaller yellow bridges beyond it are the Sixth Street Roberto Clemente, Seventh Street Andy Warhol, and Ninth Street Rachel Carson bridges – discussed in similarly brief fashion in this post – dubbed “human clothing.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Gateway Clipper tour guide intoned that the reason why everything “Pittsburgh” is colored black and yellow dates back to its founding, and is related to how they came up with the romantic sounding name “Pittsburgh” in the first place. The City picked up its moniker in 1758, when a British General named the area in honor of a back home politician named William Pitt, the 1st earl of Chatham. From an American history POV, we remember this politician as “Pitt the Elder.” It seems that the feudal standard colors of the Pitts were black and gold.
Pittsburgh stays on “brand” all these centuries later, with black and gold municipal goodness; its bridges, its Steelers NFL team, Penguins NHL team, and the Pirates MLB uniforms. According to the tour guide, the gold color, as commercially supplied, is called “Aztec Yellow.”
That brings me back to the old days, “Aztec Yellow” does, I tell’s ya… reminds me of the Aztec deity Tezcatlipoca, the god of wizards and darkness often referred to as “the smoking mirror” lest invoking his name summon the entity. Tezcatlipoca was often depicted by the Nauali Priesthood of Tenochtitlan as man with obsidian black skin wearing yellow war paint, or simply as a Jaguar.
Nerrrrrrrrrrd.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Continuing up the Allegheny River, we encountered the Fort Wayne Railroad Bridge, whose details and specifics were also discussed in the posting linked to above – dubbed “human clothing.” As mentioned on that occasion, captured also on Day One of this 72 hour portage, this is a very active railroad bridge.
Once the Gateway Clipper passed underneath it, the turnaround point for the excursion would be reached.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A humble narrator normally reacts with horror at the sort of architecture employed by a structure called the “David L. Lawrence Convention Center,” or colloquially the “Pittsburgh Convention Center,” but this massive 1.5 million square foot facility is actually pretty cool looking and a nice accommodation of the space. A section of it is cantilevered out over a highway or high speed road of some sort, as well as the Three Rivers Heritage Trail bike and pedestrian pathway. This is just past the “Strip district.”
It’s where I got my shots of the Fort Wayne Railroad Bridge the day before, along the waterfront path.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Behind the Fort Wayne Railroad Bridge, which had one of those seemingly half mile long Midwestern freight trains you hear about moving over it, that’s the “Veterans Bridge” truss bridge, and the 16th Street David McCullough Bridge in descending order.
Wow, it’s almost as if I had planned out my 72 hours in Pittsburgh to involve collecting a systemic catalog of the Golden Triangle’s bridges and interesting points, found on the Allegheny River between 31st street and Point State Park, and then the Monongahela River side Bridges and both Inclines – Monongahela and Duquesne – between Point State Park and the Smithfield Street Bridge. It’s almost as if the entire mission could then be visually summed up and compiled, via the rapid fire shooting and focal points offered by a 60 minute tourist boat excursion covering much of the same ground I had already travelled on foot.
That’s crazy, right, as I’m an idiot man child with a camera scuttling through junk yards and along riverbanks, right?
“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.
luckily obtainable
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Day two of my 72 hours long visit to Pennsylvania’s Pittsburgh involved lots and lots of walking up and down hills during the morning. After riding both the Monongahela and Duquesne Inclines to indulge my obsession with funicular railways, one took advantage of the overlook platform at the latter and set the camera up on the tripod with a filter to allow me to do a few longish exposures. Now, I realize that the shot above has been captured hundreds of thousands of times – it’s a point of view that is somewhat cliche in fact. Saying that, I hadn’t taken it, so I did. Don’t be ashamed of being a tourist when you’re doing tourist things, I always say, so get that selfie with the Statue of Liberty behind you on the Staten Island Ferry when you’re visiting my home town.
As you may have guessed by now, the Amtrak based traveling in the month of September which you’ve been reading about for a while now has been absolute nepenthe for me. Psychologically speaking, I’ve been keeping it together throughout the lockdowns and isolation of the Covid pandemic, but it’s been the same struggle for me as it’s been for everyone. I kept myself busy with night shooting and long walks around Newtown Creek, but the desire for novelty and “something else” has been nagging at me for a while now.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The inability to travel in particular, is something which started a few years before Covid occurred. My beloved and dearly departed dog Zuzu’s declining years were tremulous. Kenneling her wasn’t an option if I left town, as her health wasn’t great and she was laser focused on me as her alpha, so I hung in there and barely left Queens. For all the joy and happiness she brought us from the time she was a tiny puppy, I owed her the debt of providing her with a stable and very predictable life during her dotage. Dogs are creatures of habit, and having Daddy disappear for two weeks would have derailed her. She passed away in the summer of 2020, which was a brutal experience for me, since her regular Veterinary care was impacted by Covid. We actually had to pay a traveling Vet to come to the house and euthanize her due to the amount of pain she was in, and during that last week she just laid on her side whimpering from a spinal problem’s pain. From that ugly day in the summer of 2020 till the day Our Lady of the Pentacle and I boarded the train to Vermont’s Burlington, the first thing I’d see in the morning each and every day was the spot where she died. Talk about picking at a scab, huh? It probably sounds dumb, talking about a dog like this, but Zuzu wasn’t an ordinary dog for me. She was very, very good at her dog job, and a good friend.
The good news is that for a few weeks in September of 2021, I was able to see and experience novel and fascinating things which allowed me to wake up and not see that spot first thing in the morning. As finances allow, I’m in the early stages of planning several other Amtrak based excursions for the winter and early spring. Providence beckons, as does Holyoke, and another visit to Pittsburgh seems to be on my list.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m planning on closing out my trip to Pittsburgh’s postings either next week or shortly thereafter, after showing you what I saw on that boat trip which I’ve mentioned a few times that occurred shortly after these shots were collected. That’s when I’ll tell you why that blue bridge in the foreground – pictured above – is so special, and it’s direct connections to LIC.
I’ve been shooting a LOT since I’ve been back, riding the ferries and going places outside of the normal round. I’m now triple vaccinated, as a note. Tours of Newtown Creek have occurred for private groups – students and so on – and I recently led two public facing walking tours of Greenpoint for Open House NY Weekend.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I have to admit it was glorious to feel freedom again. I don’t mean the horseshit “freedom” that the rednecks proffer which is actually a form of indentured servitude to other people’s ideas and personal fortunes, rather I mean the ability to just do whatever the hell you want to and on your own schedule. A humble narrator is 54 years old, but I’m still in surprisingly good condition despite the life I’ve lived. The heart condition, as I was recently told by my staff of doctors, is well managed and not at all life threatening at the moment but I do need to drop some of the pandemic era weight that I’ve packed on. A bit of arthritis has been plaguing me for a couple of years now, but I’m 54, so…
Saying that, I can still easily do dawn to dusk photowalk days. That’s what I proved to myself, in Pittsburgh, in particular. I didn’t have to worry about somebody else’s leaky bladder, bad knees, spinal issues, psychological problems, or general inability to move their bodies around the world on this 72 hour mission. I also didn’t feel compelled to explain anything to anyone, which was simply awesome. When you know a little something about everything, as I do, you end up having to answer questions others offer all day long.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Having finished up the shots from the Duquesne Incline, one rode the funicular down to the south side flatlands of the Monongahela River, at the foot of Mt. Washington. A pedestrian bridge carried me down and across a high volume roadway, and I made my way to the Three Rivers Heritage Trail on this side of the City of Pittsburgh.
Observationally speaking, this side of the City isn’t quite as “post industrial” as the Allegheny/North Side is. Active freight rail tracks were humming with activity, and that’s the sort of thing which just draws me right in…
After a quick phone call to home, letting Our Lady of the Pentacle know that I hadn’t been carried off by a Mongol horde or something and that I was safe and sound, I scuttled off in the direction of my eventual boat tour. The dock was about a mile and a half from where I was standing, and I wondered how I’d fill the three or so hours until my scheduled ticket would be redeemed.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As if I’d have to worry, huh? This CSX locomotive was hauling a coal train along the shores of Pittsburgh, and that’s the Fort Pitt bridge in the background. Seriously, this is one of the most visually interesting cities in the Northeastern United States.
More next week 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 