Posts Tagged ‘Allegheny River’
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.
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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.
So, how cold has it been in Pittsburgh?
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The rivers have frozen over, that’s how cold it’s been. According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the ice on the Allegheny River is about two to three inches thick here in Pittsburgh, but up river on the Allegheny River it’s as much as two to three feet thick. They’re worried about ice jams roaring down the river during the spring thaw, according to news reports. Exciting, no?
Your humble narrator drove over to the Mr. Rogers memorial, nearby the sportsball stadium where the Steelers live, recently to record the scene. These shots were gathered in that location.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Single digit temperatures have been the standard for at least a couple to three weeks now. It has snowed more or less every other day since the new year, and everything is covered in a rock hard sheath of ice with fresh snow powder on top. Very slippery.
I know what you’re thinking – hey, that must be a lot of fun – negotiating your way through that sort of wintry situation with the recently busted ankle, huh? Confirmed, it is – indeed – fun.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
When shooting these, I was wearing a thermal layer against my skin, and on top of that I had on a T-shirt, and a flannel shirt, and a sweatshirt, and my winter coat – and I was still cold.
No pants.
Just kidding, I was wearing pants. Who goes to see Mr. Rogers sans culottes? Have some respect.
Back tomorrow with more, 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.
Pontem nusquam
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
NOTE: As you’re reading this, a humble narrator is likely under a surgeon’s knife. Last night, I broke my left ankle, and then got taken to the hospital by ambulance.
Back to your normally scheduled folderol.
One usually has a half baked plan for a walk, or at least a thought out route, before leaving the house. Instead of observing this habit, I decided to just see decide my feet were pointing and go that way this time around.
That’s how I ended up nearby PNC Park, where the Pirates sportsball outfit is housed, and staring up a flight of steps leading to the famous ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ – which the kids call the Fort Duquesne Bridge. Said span overflies the Allegheny River and connects Pittsburgh’s North Shore to the ‘Golden Triangle’ downtown section.
I like including steps on certain days, as they’re ‘good cardio.’ By this point in the scuttle, one had already decided that the penultimate destination for the evening (I had to get back to Dormont for the ‘ghost tour’ mentioned yesterday) was going to involve that brewery I like, found alongside the CSX Pittsburgh Subdivision tracks, way on the other side of the Monongahela River.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Firstly, I needed to cross the Allegheny River. Fort Duquesne offers a fantastic shared bike and pedestrian path over the river although it’s a crossing which I seldom use. Usually, I cross at the Fort Pitt Bridge or at the West End Bridge. Both of those crossings are a bit more ‘photogenic’ and offer visual access to interesting sections of the waterfront peppered with towboats and trains, but I’d walked over each one quite recently and desired novelty.
As mentioned above, Fort Duquesne hovers above the Allegheny River on the North Side of Pittsburgh. Once the crossing was complete, I’d be deposited in Point State Park, and would need to negotiate a path to the Monongahela River to get to where I wanted to be.
Mundane, no?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A path was picked, and I leaned into it. That’s the aforementioned Fort Pitt Bridge in the shot above, whose crossing I rejected as I had just shlepped over it last week.
Also, this is what rush hour traffic looks like here in Pittsburgh.
Back tomorrow – theoretically.
Have no idea what’s happened to me, and this post was largely written while an ER bed at 4:30 a.m., and quite high on pain killers. What? How do pass the time?
“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 