Posts Tagged ‘Monongahela River’
Down under, and duck
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another view of the neato lighting encountered along the Monongahela River in Pittsburgh recently, while moving beneath the Fort Pitt Bridge on a waterfront trail through a ‘zone’ found along and under an interstate highway. Your humble narrator was executing a purely constitutional walk through this wintry palace at Pittsburgh’s edge.
Gotta keep moving or I’ll stop moving.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The trail follows into and joins with a commercial parking lot, in an area colloquially referred to as ‘the bathtub.’ Known for regularly flooding during springtime high tides which carry melt water from the hills and mountains of West Virginia, this spot is really interesting.
From a modern day city planning point of view, it is a nightmare.
They locked away miles of the waterfront, in the downtown area, from ever docking a boat or allowing public access to their river in the name of installing an elevated highway, and a parking lot beneath it? That’s some Robert Moses sized bullshit right there.
This walking and bike trail was an afterthought, and you can tell that while walking along the shoreline. It’s all about the automobile hereabouts.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned, your humble narrator has a weird relationship with cars.
Necessary to modern life, even so inside a transit rich area like NYC or Chicago, automobiles nevertheless require vast infrastructure. The necessity of this infrastructure crowds out the other stuff which a functioning city requires. Specifically docks. You always lose the docks when these highways get built. Manhattan screwed itself thusly with the FDR Drive and the West Side Highway, Brooklyn with the BQE and Belt Parkway, Philadelphia with the Schuylkill… the list is endless.
Saying all that, I ain’t one of them snarly bicycle people who blame cars for an unhappy memory, or some childhood disappointment.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Birds are assholes, I think I’ve mentioned that a couple of times in the past. Most of my bird problems are Canada Goose related.
I’m a fan of what the Audubon Society says it is, but not so much of their actuality. During my years in the ‘non-profit industrial complex,’ I discovered that the most fractious of the various ‘do-gooder’ factions were not – in fact – the bicycle people, instead it was the animal people. The ‘TNR’ (trap neuter release) groups were odd but doing good stuff for the masses of feral and wild cats that you see in industrial areas.
Members of the Audubons whom I encountered were in favor of liberally spreading poisoned traps around, to eliminate the population of feral cats around Newtown Creek because cats predate birds.
I stood there with my mouth hanging open, saying ‘but it’s an ecosystem.’ To me, the fact that there was an actual ecosystem at Newtown Creek, with wild animals and predator/prey relationships at all, was an absolute joy. Especially so that it wasn’t just rats eating garbage, but the cats ate the rats and then the raccoons ate the cats and what was left of the rats. I don’t pick and choose my affections for those that are tough enough to survive the death hungry embrace of the Newtown Creek.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’d imagine that these things were ducks, but unless I know specifically what kind of a bird that a bird is, I just make something up as otherwise I inevitably get it wrong (and used to get scolded about it by Audubons.) Thereby…
Three eyed Tallow Hens, that’s what they were.
The third eye is hidden, you’d need to look for it by palpating the bird’s butt. The bird won’t like this, and neither would the Audubon Society.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There was a herd of these three eyed bastards, just hanging out. Pfft. Get a job.
Back tomorrow with something – hopefully – different.
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Pinion point, Pittsburgh
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On the south shore of the Monongahela River, beneath Pittsburgh’s ‘Fort Pitt Bridge,’ you’ll notice two locomotives transiting through the shot above, in the lower section of the photo above.
A CSX unit is moving eastwards directly on the shoreline, and up on a raised berm on the hill, a Norfolk Southern unit was heading west. Neat, and this one got a ‘hey now.’
This is the latest in a series of astoundingly short walks which endemic ice and snow conditions have boxed me into. Essentially, all within reach of mass transit, so I didn’t have to dig the car out of the driveway again.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’d be heading along one of the waterfront trails for the remainder of this walk, through an area referred to colloquially as ‘the bath tub.’ It got that nickname due to its certain tendency to flood during the spring melts, which raises the water level of the Monongahela.
I’ve got a weird relationship with driving, I’d mention. Love having the freedom it offers, but hate having to ‘mind the car’ and detest having to loop back to wherever I parked it on a walk.
Serendipity is mentioned a lot around here, as a descriptor for those random concurrencies which sometimes assemble before the camera while scuttling. Having the car along with me tends to cancel out any chance of such random events occurring, as I have to mind the vehicle rather than my surroundings. Also, you can’t ‘see’ anything from a car as you’re moving too quickly.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve got a lot of rules. No conscious trespass for instance. I operate within the sure knowledge (and experience) that eventually I’ll be invited in, and like a vampire, I need that invite to properly ‘do my thing.’
This part of the waterfront trail has recently undergone a cycle of repairs, and it was blocked off by construction equipment for most of the first year I’ve was out here in Pittsburgh, and just as it opened to the public – that’s when I shattered my ankle.
Back on all of my feet now, and I’m glad to have this pathway available, especially so on rainy days when you’re pretty much walking under the elevated ramps of an interstate and using it as a concrete umbrella..
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned in the first post of this series, this was during the initial ‘melt days’ after several weeks of sub freezing temperatures. Everything was dripping and oozing with some sort of latent horror. I had worn the leather fedora as a prophylactic for this day, anticipating that ice and snow might be crashing down on me from on high. It ain’t a hard hat, but it does offer a half inch of thick cow hide as a buffer twixt the outside world and ‘me gulliver.’
Yes, ‘A Clockwork Orange’s’ made up ‘future slang’ is a core part of my brain. Hear me, my dear droogie?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A series of interesting compositions are available under the on-ramp of the Fort Pitt bridge, for the itineraries of visiting photographers to the Paris of Appalachia. Lots of interesting massing shapes, all crushing up against other, while transferring massive amounts of weight and ‘load’ just all over the place. I spent a little time down here, and resolved to add this spot to my growing list of ‘come back with a tripod’ for night time or low light shots in the future.
There’s multiple ‘to-do’ lists at this stage.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Wasn’t walking on the highway, despite appearances. The trail threads along in parallel to the ‘parkway east,’ aka I-376.
Back tomorrow with boids.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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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.
Pushing out to the point
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A brief interval in the unending torment caused by the cold and snow which encapsulated life here in Pittsburgh – or at least my own – from the last week of January through most of the month of February, arrived.
Bands of snow, some heavy, had been omnipresent for weeks. Temperatures plunged outside, but lasagnas and meats were roasted within HQ. When an afternoon in the high fifty degree range was predicted, one sprang forth once more unto ruin and the world’s end.
One scuttled up the hill from HQ to the T light Rail Station. Soon, your humble narrator found his pre corpse standing on a platform at the T’s Potomac Station, heading for downtown Pittsburgh.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This station (Gateway) is where I debarked the T, and it’s within that downtown part of the T service which operates as a subway, utilizing an old freight line’s subterranean tunnel which has been retrofitted to accommodate a modern mission and the needs of the rolling stock.
Luckily, there’s escalators down here. There’s a kind of a brutalist approach to a transit station going on here architecturally speaking, with big slabs of concrete tossing massing shapes about. It’s a pretty steep set of stairs leading down here from street level, which always triggers my weird PTSD step related thing.
I mean… it’s not that weird, I broke my ankle on a set of steps… so… it’s not like I’m irrationally afraid of flying or getting eaten by sharks… at least, not beyond any sort of normal level of concern that one should display about that sort of thing… what can I tell you?
I’m all ‘effed up.
One uses the elevator, thereby, while going down to the platforms here, instead of those triggering stairs. In the context of this post, I was heading ‘up,’ so I rode the escalator.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The plan for this scuttle was born out of frustrations during my prior outing, as described in last Friday’s missive.
Point State Park was the next destination.
Normally, I’d walk over either the Fort Pitt or Fort Duquesne Bridge’s from there, but I had zero trust that the foot paths might be clear of snow and ice due to recent experience. Instead, I’d head ‘up’ the Monongahela River and cross over to the South Side at Smithfield Street.
It’s great to wander about but you really need to have some sort of destination and plan in mind.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This one looks back at ‘Downtown’ from the path in the prior shot.
Weather conditions and this utter municipal failure to clean up snow and ice, writ large, have reduced me down to walking in a park – damn it. I’m pretty tired of being constantly thwarted by the weather, at this stage of unending winter. Bah! What the hell, Pittsburgh…
Who can I talk to? Who would I call? Fixable… is this fixable?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I could always just stay at home and walk on a treadmill or something, but I’d soon grow so bored with that… I’d pluck out my own eyes just for ‘lulz.’
Honestly, my intrinsic nature is to just sit on my butt reading comic books. Scuttling about is often motivated by an artistic ‘need’ to go shoot photos. Maybe it’s an autistic need… I don’t know… but the point is… bored, boredy, bored and taking a walk punctures boredom nicely. Beyond boredom, I also need to move and exercise in order to keep the plumbing within the pre-corpse chugging along. The meat tuxedo requires regular shake down cruises.
Saying that, this is my annual challenge – getting out and about despite an inclement climate. As mentioned in an earlier post, you’d be hard pressed to find, should you click through the years and years of archived missives here at Newtown Pentacle (links to the right of the page), any series of posts from January or February in which I was not complaining about cold weather in a similar manner, so maybe this set of frustrations is something meta-thematic?
Rise above. Fix the world.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At Point State Park, ramps allow pedestrian and bike egress to both the Fort Pitt and Fort Duquesne bridges. I was tempted by the Fort Pitt one, but given that I was in the ‘zone’ where the ramp touches down on the south side just a couple of days previously and it was completely impassable… I decided to go with a more reliable path.
I’d hang a left instead!
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.
Operation De temps à autre
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While walking across the Monongahela River, onboard the Smithfield Street Bridge here in Pittsburgh, one became enamored by the reflectivity of the ‘rotting’ ice flows along its southern bank. Add in some light rail crossing over the river on the Panhandle Bridge? Nepenthe.
One was awaiting the arrival of ‘proper rail,’ but I’ll take what I can get.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That large brick building in the background, behind the Panhandle and Liberty Bridges, is the location of that brewery which I’m always shooting CSX trains from. I’d be heading that way, but this wasn’t a ‘have a beer’ day, it was a ‘short walk’ day.
All told, probably about 4-6 miles by the time I got back to HQ.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My dreams came true, and ‘Hey Now’ was exhaled from that noisy hole on my sensory and gustation stalk, which the humans might call a ‘head,’ an entry point to the within that I normally pour coffee, or stuff hamburgers or candy into.
CSX was on the scene, navigating along their ‘Pittsburgh Subdivision’ tracks. Well, it’s not really ‘navigation’… it’s more ‘operation.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The cool thing about this ‘zone’ is that you can hear the train coming, long before it comes into view. There’s a few ‘grade crossings’ along these tracks which necessitates the crew blowing their train horn, and that begins the better part of a mile away in either direction. When the locomotive gets close, alarmed signal arms at the grade crossings are triggered, so flashing lights and ringing bells join the party.
It’s great… for me, at least.
Hey now!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After this capture, one found his way down and over to that brewery, but as mentioned, didn’t partake. I was being greedy, and wanted to catch another rail shot while I was in the area.
Hey Now!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After #3155 passed by, my toes were pointed in the direction of transit and back home. I couldn’t really feel the toes, but there you are.
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.
Operation Pòbīng
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Continuing with a short walk across an icy Pittsburgh, in today’s post.
One was galavanting across the Smithfield Street Bridge, and was struck by the scene. The iced over Monongahela River was just a treat.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A Towboat and barges had cracked open a pathway in the ice flows. I had missed seeing the passage, but it was pretty clear which pathway they had undertook.
Neat.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One was digging on all these compositional geometries.
It has been quite frustrating for me, this interval of hard winter, as it always is. Entire walking paths were obliterated by snow pack, and my exploration schedule was just crushed flat by the snow. If you click into the archives, specifically posts from January and February, you’ll soon discover that every single one of the 16 years that Newtown Pentacle has been in operation I’ve specially complained about the winter months and getting penned in or restrained by the weather. Kind of a theme, really.
For a few walks in a row, I found myself forced into these corridors of ‘passability.’ The ‘orthopedic incident’ looms large, still.
Pittsburgh, at large, really ‘shit the bed’ on snow removal.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Looking southwards, at the northern face of Mount Washington in the South Side Slopes area. The vehicle causeway is the PJ McArdle roadway (whose sidewalks were – at the time – covered in about 18 inches of hard clear ice).
Just a day before the writing of this post, on the 18th of February, a landslide shut down the roadway for several hours. As you’d imagine, these elevated ‘zones’ were not considered for a scuttle due to weather conditions. So were the City Steps.
Bah!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Zoomed in for this one on the Colors House, which is found on Cola Street up in the ‘slopes,’ since the light was shining pretty nicely on it at the time.
One scuttled on, and on.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The buckling and heaving of the ice down on the river was intriguing to me. The closer to the southern shore of the river that I got, the more that the plates of ice below were wet and degrading (or ‘rotting’) as the warmer waters flowing beneath ate away at them. Add in the mechanical energy of that Towboat path… neat!
Back tomorrow with Choo-choo.
“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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