Posts Tagged ‘Allegheny River’
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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Burnt ends
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A few odds and ends shots from a visit to the Millvale River Walk space on the Allegheny River, just east of ‘Pittsburgh proper,’ greet you today. As described, this was a scouting scuttle, wherein I was checking the place out and seeing if there were any interesting compositions to be exploited during intervals when the weather was a bit more photogenic.
I was laughing when shooting this one. The bathroom facility was locked up, and needing to urinate, I walked down a flight of steps meant for fishermen to use and pissed into the river. What was funny about this, to me, was the yiddish expression which my grandmother would often offer – ‘Gain pishen af’n y’am’ – which is offered phonetically as I don’t know how to spell it – which translates to ‘go piss in the ocean.’
I wondered how you’d say river in yiddish during this elimination of bodily waste, which generally cracked me up for some reason.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the southern shore of the Allegheny pictured above, and I think that the area in frame is called Lawrenceville, but you really shouldn’t take my word for that as I’m still entirely reliant on my phone for navigation here in Pittsburgh. It’s an odd sensation for someone like me – who would throw down in arguments about where Williamsburg and Greenpoint ended and Bushwick began, explain to people that their house was in Astoria but their back yard was in Woodside, and knew where the geographic versus population centers of NYC were.
I love not knowing and the lack of certainty, and ignorance is great. Forces you to learn stuff, if you’re smart.
A storm that was coming in from the southwest would stick around for several days and dump close to four and a half inches of rain on Pittsburgh. The rivers rose, and all of the shoreline trails flooded. It was very exciting.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s warmed up and dried out a bit here since these shots were captured. I’ve been in three of these United States since then, although I just kind of drove into the tippity tip of West Virginia so I don’t know if that counts.
Back next week, with something different at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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Millvale, too
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described yesterday, before a humble narrator found himself getting lost in anecdotes about those bizarre behaviors which the humans display as they’re operating vehicles, a visit was paid to the Millvale Riverfront Park trail, along the Allegheny River. I had a pretty basic camera kit with me, and my goal (beyond getting some exercise) for the day involved scouting out shots which I’d return to during future outings when the scenery isn’t quite as devastated by winter as it currently is.
Y’know, when it’s like… nice out.
By basic, I mean that I had a zoom lens hanging off the front of the camera, and there were a couple of bright prime lenses in my camera bag (just in case) but I had left most of my gear back at HQ. I only ended up using the zoom.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
These circumstances here are promising, I think, and especially so when I return with a tripod and filters and work towards capturing some ‘razzmatazz’. Don’t get me wrong, I’m digging the composition on these, but it’ll be a much nicer scene when there are leaves on the trees and the lighting isn’t quite so overcast. I think this will be a ‘morning thing.’
It was a dark afternoon on this visit, however, with a solid ceiling of clouds, and there was meant to be a raining ‘cats and dogs’ event later on that evening.
Millvale, as in the community itself, is entirely unfamiliar to me. First time visiting, and as I was in a waterfront park/trail area it’s not like I interacted with anyone other than the two bicycle assholes mentioned yesterday, or visited any other local institutions, so I cannot say much about the place beyond that there’s a waterfront public park here.
That’s actually good enough for now, but I do wonder what’s just up the hill from here, where the humans infest. Will have to come back sometime in the future and find out.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
These tracks seem to have once connected to Herr’s Island, which housed stockyards of ruminants which destined for the abattoir, and eventually the shop windows of local Butchers – ‘back in the day.’ The tracks spur off of a right of way which – in modernity – is trafficked by the Norfolk Southern RR peeps.
Back tomorrow, with a few odds and ends.
“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.
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