The Newtown Pentacle

Monday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

On Labor Day, Our Lady of the Pentacle was attending an event in a fancy section of Pittsburgh which involved a ‘High Tea’ at a mansion. A humble narrator, after dropping her off at her ‘do,’ then drove about an hour outside of the city to the shore of the Kiskiminetas River. The Kiskiminetas is a tributary of the Allegheny River, and has several tributaries of its own. I’m told that the locals just call it ‘the Kiski.’

This used to be coal country, and there are many abandoned mines in the nearby hills which corrupt the Kiski’s water quality with runoff and drainages. One hadn’t committed an hour’s worth of northeasterly driving on a holiday weekend to muse about environmental matters, however.

I wanted to see and walk over the Hyde Park Footbridge. It sways! Also, it was designed by John A. Roebling and Sons.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

One side of the bridge is in Hyde Park, the other is in Leechburg. This area is very interesting to me for a variety of reasons, but especially so as this was a fairly large port ‘back in the day’ when the Pennsylvania Canal between Pittsburgh and… Philadelphia… was still in operation.

The masonry piers which support the suspension bridge’s footpath are remnants of an 1886 vintage railroad bridge. The ‘modern’ foot bridge was installed in 1950.

The walking bridge is supported by wire ropes, to which steel brackets are affixed by hangers. Every step you take, particularly nearby the shoreline anchors, transfers energy into the span which causes it to shake and shimmy from side to side. Neat!

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Pittsburgh Tribune published a concise history and description of the Hyde Park Bridge’s history at their ‘TribLive’ site in 2008, written by reporter Mary Ann Thomas – check it out here.

Me? I was just happy to be doing my thing. I haven’t set up the tripod and gotten all fancy-shmancy with filters and such in a while, so I took the opportunity to do so while on site. The always fantastic uncoveringpa.com had published a GPS location where it was kosher to park on the Hyde Park side, as well as offering one of their typically great posts about the span.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Given that I was an hour away from Pittsburgh, timing was key, as I’d be needing to pick Our Lady up from her fancy pants event at some point. Time was short, thereby, and I got busy.

Check out this second Tribune link for a telling of a fatal 1913 ferry disaster here, which occurred before this 600 foot long steel pedestrian bridge was built.

Long story short: The original rail bridge was wiped out by the 1889 Johnstown Flood, and in 1937, a wooden pedestrian bridge was built here, which the pictured steel bridge replaced.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

That’s one of the masonry piers which support the steel structure. Bridgemeister.com has a page with all the measurements and technical information about the bridge – click here for that.

Time was growing short, and I had to head back into Pittsburgh to pick Our Lady up from the event she was attending. It was Labor Day, after all, and all of the cops in Pennsylvania were prowling the highways handing out speeding tickets, or working DUI checkpoints. The highway speed limit had to be scrupulously followed, thereby, although I had nothing to worry about on the DUI side of things.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

One last shot from the Leechburg side of the Hyde Park Walking Bridge.

The Mobile Oppression Platform was parked on the other side of the river, so I headed over there and got moving back towards the southwest and Pittsburgh proper.

Back tomorrow with something different.

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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.