Posts Tagged ‘City Steps’
Cage match, baby
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After ascending a set of City Steps back in Dormont and neighboring Beechview (as described last week), your humble narrator boarded a T light rail bound for Pittsburgh’s Allentown, whereupon one set out on foot heading down the very steep Arlington Avenue. My horrible path diverged at Hartford Street, where the ‘German Square’ City Steps soon suffered my odious presence while I scuttled down their course.
I like loneliness. The humans are always disappointing, fractious, and weak in body and mind. I avoid checking notifications on my phone these days, as it’s always something horrible. Better to be alone, and commune with a favorite audiobook. I was listening to Upton Sinclair’s ‘The Jungle.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The City Steps open up to vistas at street intersections. The particular one above is at ‘Fritz Street,’ and then another set of steps continue downwards, after a quick walk from one corner to the next. This area is called the ‘South Side Slopes’ and by the standards of this surrounding neighborhood, Fritz Street is like a superhighway with its travel lanes and parking.
It must be so challenging to live here.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
These steps come close to flat land at a set of Norfolk Southern railroad tracks, where a series of pedestrian bridges span and provide for egress over the trackage.
I had a feeling that I was about to see a train (seeing the signal lights change was kind of a giveaway) and I changed the camera lens over to something that could shoot through the chain link fence – my trusty 85mm f2 prime lens.
The little scanner radio I carry around with me was activated, and overheard radio chatter suggested that I was correct in my assessment that the signal lamps changing would lead to something interesting happening on the tracks below.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hey Now!
This Norfolk Southern train set was moving ‘away from Ohio,’ although it’s likely that it’s more likely moving from the Conway Yard in PA.
Unlike CSX, which I show y’all all the time, Norfolk Southern isn’t forced into routing trains through a single street grade choke point. They’ve got options, and just off the top of my head there’s at least three other ways for them to travel through, just in the central area of Pittsburgh.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Norfolk Southern’s #4235 locomotive was apparently built in 1997, and originally called NS #9038. In August of 2019, the GE AC44C6M unit was rebuilt and renamed as #4235. At least, that’s what the internet tells me.
Again, not a railfan, I just like taking pictures of trains. If I get something wrong, in an extremely topical search, please let me know. I always take corrections and then embed them into the posts retroactively. Only way to really learn stuff is to be wrong about something.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s nothing quite as ugly a sensation as getting blasted with a train’s exhaust when you’re literally standing 10-15 feet over the exhaust ports. Volcanic heat suddenly blossoms, the air is stained with diesel exhaust, it’s a real joy, that. Hey now?
Locomotive NS #4821 was providing ‘DP’ service to the main engine, adding motive power to a long chain of cargo boxes and containers.
Back tomorrow.
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Jingle janglity jingle
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Allentown PA., it’s not the one in the Billy Joel song, although it might as well be. Kind of the same story, up here in Pittsburgh, though.
Here’s the wikipedia page describing the area. It’s can be a bit dicey, Allentown. 99% of the time, you’re going to be just fine, but that 1% chance involves meeting the wrong people at the right time. Outside of my experience, so far, but police statistics are statistical. I’d kind of analogize this area to Flatbush Avenue at Church for you New Yorkers, given that all things in the world are merely reflections and shimmers of the infinity of NYC’s Brooklyn.
Roger Zelazny’s ‘Chronicles of Amber’ comes to mind, regarding the way that I think about Brooklyn – as the world’s one ‘true place.’ Anywhere you are that’s not Brooklyn, just like the fictional Amber, is ‘walking through Shadow.’ A reflection, distorted but still a reflection.
Due to construction, the T has been moving through Allentown all summer, and the agency which operates the service has created a temporary stop more or less at the apogee of the hill. That’s about to change as the construction project winds down, and I’ve been taking advantage of the temporary stop all summer and fall.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One started on the downhill section of my day, after debarking the T light rail. A quick adjustment of camera bag ensued, and all the straps and other crap I carry, and then I was scuttling along again – all peaceful and calm like.
This is Arlington Avenue pictured, which curls down the face of Mount Washington and around the base of ‘Billy Buck Hill,’ on its way down to the flatlands of the Monongahela River’s flood plain. On its way to the bottom, Arlington passes by the entrance to the Mount Washington Transit Tunnel, Liberty Bridge and Tunnel, and the PJ McArdle roadway, providing commanding views of the Monongahela River valley which helps to define the Steel City.
It’s a challenging drive, I’d mention.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The rail tracks are set onto curves up here, and they just tear into your tires. If you’re on a bike, the biggest problem you’re going to have is controlling speed, due to the grade of the pavement. Since the early summer, T light rail traffic has been rerouted through this corridor.
Downhill courses like this have been essential in regaining my strength and mobility over the last six months. It’s fairly easy to find places that blast the big muscles in the back and sides of the thighs as well as your butt, but it’s more difficult to hit the fronts of the thigh and calf.
My not so secret weapon in pursuance of rebuilding flexibility and endurance, as well as stretching out all the rubber bands in my still recovering ankle, this has been. I told my surgeon about this effort, and he seemed impressed by its ingenuity.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Everybody asks. Yes, it still hurts. Can I sit around and cry about it? Done enough of that last year to last a lifetime. I have a half pound of titanium in my ankle now, braces and screws. Huge scars from the surgery which are quite ugly to behold are on both sides of the limb, as well. The only way forward is to walk away from it.
Hey Now, there’s a Pittsburgh bound light rail train set.
Here’s the operator flashing me a thumbs up in an extremely cropped shot. I wasn’t sure it was a thumbs up until I zoomed in, btw.
At last – somebody who apparently doesn’t mind a random stranger taking a picture of them while they’re at work. Finally.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another T, moving away from Pittsburgh, was thereafter recorded. Yes, vehicle traffic and the T move through the same space here. When the tunnel retrofit is finished, these tracks will only be used during emergencies, but are maintained. Going back to the Brooklyn analogy – man, oh man, would the MTA have ‘effed this entire operation up…
My next set of moves involved more of the ‘City Steps,’ but this time around I was heading downwards, towards the South Side Flats area.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
City Steps, in Pittsburgh, have the legal status of sidewalks. The ‘public way’ as it were. I’ve walked this pathway before, but haven’t done so since the ankle incident and the installation of the PTSD software into my brain box regarding stairs.
If something scares you, go over to it and give it a kiss. Fear then dissipates.
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.
Rise, run, rise, ride
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One had been positively cooped up for several days while handling the ultramundane – obligation, duty, ‘have to’s.’ Finally, a day I could call my own arrived and it was decided to ‘really hit it.’
By the time this particular scuttle ended, my legs and particularly the knees would be sore for days.
Just a couple of blocks from HQ, a street called ‘Louisiana Avenue’ terminates at a pedestrian bridge that leads to a set of City Steps. On this path, you quietly pass through a municipal border – from the Borough of Dormont to the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Beechview.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Beechview’s terrain is severe. Canton Avenue, the steepest street in North America and possibly the world, is found within its confines. These steps, which don’t have a name (apparently) allow pedestrian egress from the low point of Louisiana Avenue all the way up to Neeld Avenue in Beechview, which is a few footfalls away from Broadway Avenue, which is the street that the T light rail runs on. Street level tracks, they are, and this is one of the sections of the service where the T runs as a streetcar/trolley.
I had to climb up those City Steps first.
Must have been about 2-300 feet of them. It’s actually a good thing, to get your heart racing at the start of a walk. My practice has always been to start off at a bit of sprint and warm up the internally lubricated parts before setting off on a full scale ‘wander.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Good cardio, this.
It’s also obeying my self imposed form of exposure therapy to stairs, shaking the PTSD cobwebs out of the brain which have haunted me since the busted ankle incident last year. The psychological after effects of that experience have been with me on every walk since, and every single time that I walk up or down the stairs at home where my accident occurred.
If you’re curious, I was listening to a favorite audiobook: an unabridged reading of Upton Sinclair’s ‘The Jungle.’
The linked file isn’t the version I was listening to, as a note, but it’s at YouTube so that’s more accessible than something you’d have to sign up for to listen to it. The America which the Jungle describes wasn’t so ‘great’ back then – according to actual history – and it’s an era which so many people opine as having been a better time than our current day. Bah!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After reaching the end of the first set of steps, a hazardous road crossing leads to yet another set of steps, and these ones are solidly in the Beechview section. The plan for the day was loose. My intention involved using the T to get me to a certain midway point, but not to go all the way into town. From there, I’d improvise and follow my nose.
There’s been a construction project underway at the transit tunnel which the T normally routes through. The people who run the service have been routing the light rails instead up and over the landform which that tunnel is bored through, and the route has added an extra and temporary stop at the apex of the prominence, in the Allentown section.
That’s a great spring board, for one such as myself.
The T uses the tracks and wires of a no longer in service light rail line for this task. It adds about ten minutes onto the commute for riders.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Back on regular pavement, but I still had hills to climb. After letting my heart rate drift back from rapid to elevated, I leaned into it. The plan was to walk over to one of the T stops and ride it up to Allentown and then… and then… and then…
That’s a little bridge which the T uses to surmount the valleys and hills. Really, the engineering challenges underlying this service are wild.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After arriving at the stop which I had climbed both stairs and hills to get to, my chariot arrived. I could have walked to a different station via a far less rigorous route, but the point of exercise is ‘exercise,’ not comfort or ease.
The light rail people are nearing the end of their constructive labors on the transit tunnel, and it’s likely been reopened by the time you’re reading this. I wanted to take advantage of the temporary stop at the top in Allentown.
Back tomorrow with more.
“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.
Styling down Sterling St.
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
First off, I had no idea that an event called ‘Steptrek’ was playing out on the particular day I took this walk, but it was.
I’ve been slowly consuming Laura Zurowski’s ‘City Steps of Pittsburgh’ book, and visiting some of the interesting locations discussed by the author, when ‘fancy’ strikes, or I just need a good downhill sort of workout for my still gamey ankle.
In this case, that how I ended up at the Sterling Street Steps, found in the South Side Slopes.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This ‘zone’ is somewhat insane, in terms of building a neighborhood onto terrain this challenging and steep. The City Steps of Pittsburgh allow for pedestrian egress around these hills and valleys. They also provide unbeatable views of the city.
There’s ‘orphan houses’ up here, which are only connected to the outside world via the City Steps. No other street access.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Looking down at the entrance/top of the Sterling Street Steps, and in the distance is the Birmingham Bridge, over the Monongahela River. On the other side of the river, that’s the neighborhood of ‘Uptown’ squatting on ‘The Bluff.’ Beyond, it’s the ‘Hill District’ for that tree line, and towards the right is Oakland, where the colleges are. It’s all very exciting, really.
It was a perfect day, weather wise, in Pittsburgh. Temperatures in the middle/high 60’s and low humidity. The sky was milky, but clear.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As far as the event I’d inadvertently wandered into, there were lots and lots of people with printed out maps who were wearing athletic clothing and participating in ‘StepTrek.’
Chatted with one bloke from the promotion for a few minutes, on these steps, imparting him with every bit of encouragement I could to dare walking Rialto Street and then trying out the St. Nicholas Church trail. I advised him about how horrific the latter experience is, but opined that you really have to just scratch that one off your list.
Hey, check me out, I actually know something about Pittsburgh.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Longtime readers will tell you that I’ve been assiduously working my way around, over, down, and through Pittsburgh’s many corridors since getting the ‘all clear’ from the Orthopedic people in late Spring. At first, my post broken ankle movements were truncated, pained, and difficult. Penguin walking, as I described it.
Throughout the summer and early autumn, gradual improvements in stride and pace have occurred as I’ve fought to build my strength back up.
Nobody is chanting ‘playah’ when I scuttle past, but there you are.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
No matter what happens to you, you need to keep moving.
An unstoppable person is an irresistible force. Get out into the world and see it with your own eyes. Don’t believe half of what you read or any of what you hear until you’ve witnessed it for yourself. All is false and phoney. The only truth out there is what can be seen and touched and smelled. And photographed, of course.
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 