Posts Tagged ‘Fort Duquesne Bridge’
Just step right up, and hear a tale…
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Chokepoints. Pittsburgh is full of them. Especially so when you’re on foot. I’ve mentioned this a few times. It’s a city which is set up entirely for the convenience of automobile and truck drivers, and for vehicular ‘flow.’
That latter concept is a city killer. You want people to park their cars, walk around to local shops, and spend their money. This ‘system’ of highways facilitates the exit of that money to distant suburbs, and other municipalities, where it will be spent and the sale will be taxed by a different municipality instead. You want your citizens to spend money as close as possible to where they earned it.
Also – It really sucks to be a pedestrian in areas like this. Street crossings, in particular, are fairly scary. Meh!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One scuttled up the ramp to the Fort Duquesne Bridge. This section of Pittsburgh’s ‘North Shore’ where it’s found received quite a bit of attention during the late winter and early spring here at Newtown Pentacle.
Mainly so due to the presence of two ‘T’ Light Rail stations nearby the stadiums, which allowed one such as myself a quick and easy ‘debark’ point from a mass transit service that tracks back to HQ in Dormont.
Essentially, anytime I’ve gone ‘out’ for a scuttle in the last year or so, the plan has always involved using mass transit for at least one leg of the effort. Partially, this is economic, but it’s also kind of become a ‘challenge thing’ for me. Let’s see how far away I can start a walk, and…
For this particular day, the rideshare dropped me a couple of miles north for my starting point. The challenges offered by any choice in my route were;
a) finding a path which hadn’t already been polluted by my presence but was still photogenically ‘interesting,’ b) figuring out a roundabout way to get back to the T, c) not getting squished by a car while crossing streets.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve been noticing odd things.
While walking over the Fort Duquesne Bridge, I was keeping an eye out for what looks like a former pedestrian path, one which has been abandoned and intentionally clipped off. It breaks off of the riverfront trail, and is attached to an onramp of this bridge.
There’s a concrete barrier, pictured, which blocks the path towards the Point State Park, but the counter side of that path leading from the park is still accessible. Weird.
Go figure, huh?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another closed pedestrian lane is present up on the bridge itself.
Normally, this POV is locked away from prying eyes, but the gate was unlocked and just hanging open, so I cracked out a shot. This pathway just terminates, at a spot where there were likely stairs or a ramp connected once, but which would now just offer a dead drop into the Allegheny River, from high above.
Fun.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The path from this area was pretty simple:
Bypass Downtown Pittsburgh by skirting its edges, and then cross the Monongahela River via the Smithfield Street Bridge. Ultimately, I was heading for that familiar brewery on Pittsburgh’s South Side where the CSX tracks are found and I like to shoot trains.
Still had a decent amount of walking to accomplish.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hey Now! Speaking of CSX, and the southern shoreline of the Monongahela River…
Back tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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Operation Tahalna
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A brief aperture, in a seemingly constant barrage of winter weather that had been battering Pittsburgh occurred, and your humble narrator soon found himself at the local ‘T’ light rail station awaiting his ride. The weather window would be closing within a few hours, so it would be a short scuttle for me on this particular day. Stretching the legs, as it were.
Traveling light with a minimum photo ‘kit’ in the bag, one was nevertheless swaddled in insulating clothes to combat the atmospheric temperatures. I’ve described the minimum kit bag in the past, but – two prime lenses and a few ‘odds and bobs’ of essential gear.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The T was ridden to Pittsburgh’s north shore, where I discovered that the legions were beginning to assemble for a football game that night.
Realization that I had wandered into exactly the sort of setting I don’t want to be in – where the human infestation would soon be swarming – my plans for the afternoon began to alter.
Also, a considerable amount of ice and snow was present on the pavements, even in those areas which receive dedicated maintenance. Did not want to find out what things looked like in spots where nobody is taking care of the sidewalks.
Orthopedic incident… it still occupies a big part of my brain, a fevered tenancy wherein no rent is paid.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s Acrisure Stadium, where the action would be happening later on.
I understand that the Steelers won that night, but I didn’t see anyone sacrificing a bull or anything – this time. My amended plan for the day, thereby, would be to loop around the stadium and get back on the T light rail, which I’d ride over to a different section of the City which would hopefully be a bit less populated.
In the ‘inner ring’ of Pittsburgh, the light rail runs in a ‘free zone.’ Hop on, hop off, it’s cool.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Allegheny River has been pushing out ice flows for a few weeks now.
The river’s source is far to the north, nearby PA.’s border with New York State. Kinzua, I’m told.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Made it back to the T’s terminal stop, and boarded a train set heading towards the South. Chatted with some Canadian guy from Quebec who was a tourist, and he was in town for the football game. Recommended a place to eat and grab a drink to him, near his hotel, and then one debarked at the ‘Steel Plaza Station,’ under the U.S. Steel Building, in the downtown section.
Back on the streets, where I belong.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I noticed that the sculptures in this park were sporting some sort of plastic or vinyl protective covers. Interesting, that. It was getting colder with every step, I should mention, and the thermometer had been at 24 degrees when I left HQ.
Regardless, I’ve got to keep moving or I’ll stop moving.
Back tomorrow with more.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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To the confluence, onwards
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Continuing with description of a fairly wide ranging scuttle around Pittsburgh: your humble narrator could be observed shambling along a waterfront trail, one which hugs the southern shoreline of the Allegheny River, in the so called ‘Golden Triangle’ section of the city.
This view looks in a westerly direction towards the confluence of the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers, where the headwaters of the Ohio River form. The bridge closest to the lens is the Fort Duquesne Bridge, and the one in the distance is the West End Bridge.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The staccato of a diesel engine echoed upriver, and I decided this would be an excellent spot for a quick ‘sit down.’ It had been a few hours since I was at rest, and since I wanted to get a few shots of whatever was coming down the river, it was an opportunity to just sit down and wait. It was nice to take my camera bag off of my back.
Just the other day, at a Doctor’s appointment, occasion found the Doc and I weighing the camera bag. Just under thirty pounds of stuff on my back, as it turns out.
The heaviest items in there, beyond the camera and zoom lens, are a series of prime lenses (which allow me to be ready for most things, including entering interior spaces with low light or night shots), there’s a tripod and other camera mounts, and a bunch of gear which I don’t necessarily ‘need’ but like having with me. I’ve got my rail scanner radio in there, and I actually carry a few comfort items like bandaids with me, just in case. There’s also small tools in there which I might need for the camera, or other gear, while out in the field – hex wrenches and the like. Sometimes, there’s an umbrella too.
The Doc was interested in what my physical exercise modality entailed, and he wanted to gauge physical capabilities, based on my reporting to him of scuttling distance and time. Luckily, I think this was my last ‘check up’ of 2025. At least, I’m hoping it is.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The hull of this vessel includes a logo for an entity called ‘Alcosan,’ and a line of text that reads ‘ATB READSHAW,’ with its call sign being ‘WDJ4530.’
Alcosan is the ‘Allegheny County Sanitary Authority.’ Sewer and water agency, basically. Apparently, the boat is named for a former elected official who is now a board member of the Alcosan outfit.
The barge it was towing had a shed/structure and other equipment on it. Seemed pretty banal, but I take what I can get when behind the lens.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I waited around for about 15-20 minutes as the underway tug headed towards the Fort Duquesne Bridge. I shot way too many exposures of the thing, but to fair, my hunt for rail earlier in the day had come up empty and I was fairly psyched just to have a subject to point the camera at.
Sometimes you get lucky and everything falls into place, other times it’s mile after mile of banality.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
‘That’s a cool view of the Fort Duquesne Bridge’ thought your humble narrator, and resolve to come back and capture this scene in low light hours blossomed within. I’m feeling the urge for night time shooting again.
Problem is that my old NYC night owl tendencies have fallen away, and it’s fairly common for me to be awake and drinking coffee by six in the morning. Accordingly, I’ve been going to bed quite early for a while now. As has often been mentioned, where I now live is dark and quiet at night.
Really no good reason, these days, for me to be awake at two or three in the morning. This ain’t Astoria.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This contraption was encountered next.
It required a bit of detective work to figure out what this gizmo does, but this photo, and this one too, provided the key to unlocking the mystery. Turns out this is a ‘counter’ of some kind which manufactures statistical data as to how many of the humans pass by it on the waterfont trail. ‘Eco Counter’ is imprinted on an electronics box, and that’s the name of a Canadian company whose offerings operate in this space and provide governmental entities with analytics. Neat.
Back next week 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.
Vouchsafing against Diurnal Nosferatu’s
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
First off, there’s no way you’re going to get me to believe that the sub specie of Vampires hasn’t figured out a workaround for their sunlight problem here in the 21st century. Sunscreen? Hats? Something?
I figure that their ‘not crossing flowing water’ prohibition is a little harder for the armies of the night to conquer. Just in case a diurnal vampire has locked onto me, I’ll often take a quick hike across any available bridge as a vouchsafe. In this case, it was the Fort Duquesne bridge over the Allegheny River, here in Pittsburgh.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Fort Duquesne leads into Point State Park, and offers sweet views of its sister bridge – the Fort Pitt. The path off the bridge is wooded on both sides, so… excellent perching spots for day vampires to grab a snack off the path and chow down in the sylvan shadows. I stayed directly in the middle of the road, which I’ve actually never understood as being the metaphor for ‘safe.’
Worst place to be, middle of the road… that’s where the double yellow line is. Even worse are the other sides of the travel lane, at the extreme edges of the pavement, along the white lines.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The guy dressed up like a British soldier was likely a historical reenactment actor, but he could have been a ‘day vampire’ that has been dressing like that for hundreds of years. Anything is possible these days, as objective truth has become plastic, moldable, and pliant.
Hope that guy in the blue modern clothes made it home to his family.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I continued on, scuttle scuttle scuttle.
If I was a vampire, I think that I’d run for political office.
Mesmerize the crowd, tell them ‘those people over there whom you don’t like are taking something away from you, and giving it to somebody else far away that you like even less.’ I’d pontificate that garlic didn’t exist before 1957, that it’s an invasive specie sent to America by International Communists in order to traffick children in exchange for Fentanyl. Holy water would need to be banned by my edict, and then scheduled as a Class One controlled substance with the DEA.
I’d advocate for smog, and promise that the overcast conditions offer ‘freedom from sun burns and skin cancer’ for the span of my reign term.
My supporters would be called ‘freedom children, of the night,’ and they’d be required to wear red clothing so as to hide the leftovers from luncheon feedings, and I’d exclusively staff my inner office with loyal cohorts sent to me from amongst the Romani’s Rudar clan in Romania (or just reach out to Sunnyside in Queens, where the former ‘Maspeth Romani’ live).
Boxes of native soils from Brooklyn’s Canarsie would be stored around my district, and in Washington. You gotta sleep sometimes.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
For crossing the Monongahela River, I avoided the obvious path of walking the Fort Pitt Bridge. Kind of out of the way for where I wanted to get to, and I was interested mainly in shaking off any potential day vampires who might be following me. ‘Day Vampire’ isn’t a metaphor for something ugly, by the way, I literally mean ‘day vampire.’
A counter narrative to my vampiric musings was playing through my headphones, incidentally, with Dragnet’s Joe Friday interrogating a bombing suspect, whose house hosted a bunch of Nazi stuff – flags, uniforms, etc. This script was also turned into a teleplay during the ‘Dragnet 67’ television version of the show, if it sounds familiar.
Friday gave one of his speeches about American values – free speech, freedom of conscience, the role which science and vaccines had played in freeing the WW2 generation and their descendants from avoidable disease and disfigurement. Friday put this speech forward as a rebuke to the suspect, who just wanted to tear the entire edifice down.
Joe Friday versus Vampires… now, that would have been something.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Smithfield Street Bridge carried me across the Monongahela River, which made two flowing water barriers crossed. It did occur to me that Vampires probably use cell phones these days, and distinct populations of them might be communicating with each other remotely.
‘Hey, check out the old guy with the camera, he looks juicy. Lol’
Back next week with something different – 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.
Avoiding day vampires, and Mr. Rogers
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
An unexpected interval of personal freedom was suddenly loosed upon me, and a surge of intent rose from within. I broke my camera bag down to its barest essentials and shlepped up the hill to the T light rail station here in Pittsburgh’s Dormont. Soon, one found himself riding on the electrical conveyance, towards the beating heart of the Steel City.
It was a hot day in Pittsburgh, with temperatures in the upper 80’s, and a fairly high dew point made things humid and sticky. This was a short walk, incidentally, and I wasn’t planning on doing anything complicated, rather the effort was solely about ‘taking a walk.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The T was ridden to its terminal stop nearby Acrisure/Heinz stadium, where the Steelers dwell and play. This spot is nearby the North Shore of the Allegheny River, as a note.
My headphones were in, and this time around I was listening to an ‘old time radio’ podcast which offered episodes of the old Dragnet radio dramas, produced during the late 1950’s and early 60’s. Joe Friday hadn’t risen to the rank of Sergeant yet in these, and his partner/superior officer was a Detective named Ben.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I stopped off to visit the Mr. Rogers memorial, since I was in its neighborhood.
There was a college sportsball game setting up at the football stadium, and thereby the humans were infesting and then forming into clots. These clots were beginning to congeal, forming arterial blockages on the streets and sidewalks, so a plan was hatched to ‘get out of dodge.’
Hate crowds, me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
You can dock private boats in downtown Pittsburgh. I don’t know if you have to make prior arrangements to do so, but there you are.
It’s been a while since I walked over the Fort Duquesne Bridge, thought a humble narrator, so my toes were pointed in the appropriate direction.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Brr, stairs…
Happily, I can report that the PTSD symptomatology regarding stairs that I’ve been enjoying for the last year seems to be retreating into the rear view mirror. Luckily, that means I can now obsess over other irrational terrors and ideations. Like Vampires.
It’s been a while since I worried about the Nosferatu, or Strigas. Or Rakshashaa. Those were Astoria problems.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Vampires are the best thing to worry about.
Don’t have to worry about the country slouching roughly towards a Civil War, the seeming collapse of Western Civilization, or the fact that the Russians and NATO are essentially testing each other’s borders militarily.
Day Vampires… now that sounds scary, doesn’t it?
Think about day vampires, and nothing else… trust me.
“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 