Posts Tagged ‘Allegheny River’
Dahntahn Yinzerville
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
To start, the Pittsburgh people refer to the regional culture they enjoy as being ‘Yinzer.’ The local accent, which pronounces the word ‘downtown’ as ‘Dahntahn’ and says ‘aht’ when they want to say ‘at,’ uses a contraction for ‘you all’ that sounds like ‘y’inz.’ Use it in place of ‘y’all.’
There’s a cultural conceit and marketing gimmick built in here, therefore, centering around ‘Yinz.’ It’s common for people in the Pittsburgh Metro to describe themselves as ‘Yinzers,’ although you already figured out they’re ‘from here’ due to a Steelers jersey, worn with shorts in January. There’s a strain of masculinity here which likes to project that they don’t feel cold, as they’re far too tough for that.
That’s the explanation for the title of this post, ‘Dahntahn Yinzerville.’
After passing under the 1922 vintage ‘David McCullough 16th street bridge’ on the waterfront trail, I was definitively ‘Dahntahn.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s another patch of tall buildings about five to six miles to the east in Oakland, where CMU and Pitt’s campuses are found, but most of the businesses hereabouts enjoy horizontal setups rather than vertical ones.
Density ain’t what it used to be.
Another interesting wrinkle to Yinzer talk involves the supposition of a past tense variant for the word while using a verb in present tense. It’s not ‘the car needs to be washed,’ rather it’s ‘the car needs warsh.’
Fascinating.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Before plunging into the urban core, in pursuance of acquiring the T light rail at Wood Street Station, a few last wave arounds of the camera occurred. This one looks across the Allegheny towards its northern shoreline.
It was time to begin the last steps of this scuttle, and ‘the final paht of this scuttle needs walk.’
Back tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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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.
Almost, almost…
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After reacquiring the waterfront trail here in Pittsburgh, which follows the shoreline of the Allegheny River, your humble narrator continued on his lonely path. I wasn’t using headphones on this walk, as I wished to remain very aware of my surroundings for some reason. Wasn’t worried about getting jumped at all, although I was likely the best target on the trail due to the camera. A vast physical coward, if somebody tried to mug me, I’d probably just end up vomiting on them out of fear. Experience states that puke ends a street fight faster than Kung Fu does.
This walk ended up being six and half miles long (that’s 411, 840 inches), a new personal best in this post broken ankle season I’m living through.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I was fascinated by the tree growth seen around the lumber piles above, which makes the wood look like it was molten and poured. There’s a ghastly life and death narrative at work there, with the cut lumber piles being subsumed by the living trees. Wonder what used to be here that needed docks…
This is where I soon found myself marching into another ‘angle’ between neighborhood areas, as it’s where Pittsburgh’s ‘The Strip’ metastasizes into ‘Downtown.’ Still wondering what was here that required docks…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I cannot express the sense of joy I get from my ignorance, and then getting curious about something. Recent background reading has focused in on Zinc, as in the mining/processing/industrial application thereof. Positively galvanizing, the story of zinc is. It’s anodizing, as well.
Guess I’m going to have to start reading up on the history here, as I’m getting curious about all the ‘once, long ago/used to be’ stuff. Sigh. I’ve been enjoying my ignorance… did you know that Zinc is the 4th most abundant metal on the Earth, despite its relatively low melting point?
Your humble narrator still had a little bit of walking ahead of him to get to that T station where the light rail would be boarded for a ride back to HQ.
Come with? 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.
Scuttlebug
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Intriguing is how I’d describe this section of Pittsburgh, found along the Allegheny River. There’s a lovely industrial zone there, complete with railroad tracks, shattered dreams, and that particular shaping of desolating loneliness which I so enjoy. Don’t get me wrong, there was all sorts of activity going on all over the place, but there was a real sense of ‘under utilized’ in this ‘IBZ’ if you know what I mean. The gentrification furnaces glow quite brightly in nearby sections of this and neighboring areas. I’ll show you some of that in upcoming posts.
This scuttle started at the corner of 40th and Willow, in Pittsburgh’s Lawrenceville. It was temperate out, but breezy and dry. I was wearing the filthy black raincoat and a flash orange baseball cap, along with my usual ensemble.
It reminds me a lot of Philadelphia, this section, in terms of the sort of built environment you encounter. Row houses with narrow sidewalks, basically. When I’m told by the locals that this is ‘Pittsburgh’s Williamsburg,’ I smirk a bit, remembering when Grand Avenue was a hooker’s stroll and Radiac was storing nuclear waste right across the street from Domino. Just like Brooklyn’s Williamsburg, this neighborhood has seen rents skyrocket, and lots of new construction occurring. Basically – this is where the Cool kids want to live – or so I’m told.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
First thing which I wanted to check out hereabouts was Lawrenceville’s River Trail.
It’s truncated, and didn’t seem to join up with other rail trails in the area according to the ‘pre gaming’ I had done in Google maps, but you never know what’s what until you take a look for yourself.
The bridge spanning the entrance to the trail is the Fortieth Street or Washington Crossing Bridge. As it turned out, the Lawrenceville section of the river front ‘rail trails’ is indeed isolated from the rest of the network and you’re meant to walk back out the way you came in, but I opted to just scuttle over the railroad tracks and regain the street grid via a former homeless camp’s ‘desire path.’
There’s around 3-4 blocks worth of scuttling to enjoy back there, and a dog park, whereupon you have to return to the streets the way you came in.
After returning to the streets in a less than legal manner, and heading in the general direction of downtown Pittsburgh, the streets run into a giant chunk of railroad infrastructure called the 33rd street rail bridge. We’ll get there in a subsequent post later this week or beginning of next. I visited the opposite shoreline of the river in Millvale last year, you can check that out here.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The terminus of the trail is actually a spot I’ll return to in the future, and where I’ll vaingloriously await a locomotive that never arrives in pursuit of a photo. Experience suggests bringing something to sit on, and a sandwich. These tracks are used by the Allegheny Valley Rail Road – or ‘AVRR’ – which I sometimes refer to as the ‘White Whale’ as spotting them is pretty rare, compared to other rail services in Pittsburgh like CSX or Norfolk Southern.
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.
Mundane funsburgh
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Our Lady of the Pentacle led the charge on a recent weekend day, when she announced that she’d like us to attend an ‘Oddities’ convention at Pittsburgh’s Convention Center, which is found along the Allegheny River on the so called ‘Golden Triangle.’ It was your standard sort of ‘con’ show, with individual vendors and artists tabling in booths and selling or displaying their wares. Taxidermy was a big part of this ‘oddities’ dealie, but there were all sorts of people selling all kinds of ‘weird’ stuff.
Personally, I grew colossally bored after about 45 minutes. So I announced that I was going to take a powder for awhile and meet up with Our Lady (and a couple of friends) after they had explored the offerings. It was basically a shopping trip at this point, which is something I don’t find fun. I headed outside into an atmosphere bitter cold and heavy wind.
That’s when I heard it. Diesel.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Fort Wayne Rail Bridge, and I should mention that I had left my ‘superzoom’ lens at home and was armed only with an 85mm prime lens, was allowing egress from the central peninsula of Downtown Pittsburgh and across the Allegheny River to the ‘North Side’ for a Norfolk Southern’s train allowing it access to the trackage found along the Ohio River.
Wooie!
Wish I had the zoom with me, but I kind of like these shots of the Norfolk Southern’s transit for some reason.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was hauling tanker cars, ones which were too far away for me to have any idea what was in them. Gotta say that when you see a train going by and the screed on the tanker car says something like ‘WARNING! Molten Sulfur,’ it does give you pause. Law of averages says that eventually something’s going to go badly, somewhere. Remember East Palestine, in Ohio, when that train exploded and burnt? About 70-80 miles from my house in Pittsburgh, that was.
Of course, when I lived in Manhattan, 911 happened six miles from my house, so you’re really not safe from disaster anywhere. I’ve always strived to be an optimist, Y’see.
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.
As below, so above
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After capturing shots of the frozen rivers, here in Pittsburgh, at the shoreline level nearby the Mr. Rogers monument on the Allegheny River, your humble narrator headed back to his Mobile Oppression Platform, and set out to West End Overlook Park to take in the whole scene. Wow.
The Monongahela River comes up from the south via West Virginia, so its waters are warmer than those of the Allegheny, which starts its journey to the north in the State of New York, near Kinzua.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the Ohio River pictured above, which mixes the first two waterways into a third. I’m told that the Corps of Engineers does ice breaking with a series of second party partners here, but I keep on hoping to see a black hull Coast Guard boat busting through. I seem to recall that it was eight degrees Fahrenheit that afternoon.
Your humble narrator was freezing and it was time to head back to the MOP, a Toyota. The thing was activated, and the heat turned up high. I settled into my station and began navigating. I eventually had to head over to a different section of Pittsburgh for yet another PT session, but was glad of being able to capture this phenomena.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As you’d imagine, in a place renowned for its overlook park, the town of West End/Elliot is huddled up against a steep hill which plateaus at the overlook. This was the view of that particular milieu, as I was driving back down to the valley level, where a series of roadway interchanges awaited me. It was yet another ‘PT’ day, after all.
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 