Posts Tagged ‘Monongahela River’
Hey Now! and auld acquaintances be forgot
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Mountain Avenue to Yard Way part four/ ‘fin.’
After a fairly fun scuttle, through the South Side Slopes section of Pittsburgh, one found the stinking pre-corpse that his brain is trapped within shambling forth unto the South Side Flats region. The flood plain of the Monongahela River is how I’d describe this area – quite atypical for Pittsburgh – which is a patch of absolutely flat ground.
My plan for the remainder of the day was a simple one.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
First, I walked out onto the South 10th street bridge to see if there was anything going on, as far as maritime traffic goes.
Allow me to teach you an Italian American slang word here – ugatz. That’s what I got, as far as boats go, ugatz.
No bueno.
Second, that brewery I used to mention all the time, that one which is nearby the railroad tracks and had been closed, has reopened – with a new owner operator occupying the space.
It had been a few weeks since I had drank a beer, so I set out to rectify that situation. I walked about six or seven blocks worth of Pennsylvania to get there, using one of the nearby waterfront trails.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Soon, while drinking a Pale Ale, CSX #3100 appeared, heading east.
After quaffing the brew, I returned my glass to the bar and then ‘inspected their porcelain.’ Refreshed, I was soon heading up a flight of stairs and towards the second level of this so called ‘Highline’ location, which the brewery is based in, towards a truss/ramp structure which offers a higher POV.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One had a bit of time left to me, so I found a spot to sit down and then just sort of waited for something to happen. Time was passed by shooting the various T light rail units moving back and forth over the Panhandle Bridge, spanning the Monongahela River.
In the distance, to the west, a train horn sounded.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hey Now! CSX #4793 appeared, hurtling through the scenery. Hooray!
It was definitely time to head back to HQ afterwards. One began scuttling towards the T’s nearby Station Square stop, to catch a ride back to HQ in Dormont, found about five or so miles from this spot.
That’s when I saw it. Conspicuously displayed in an area which I move through regularly, and have published multiple posts about doing so.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Cobbler? The Queens Cobbler?
Single shoes have been noticed recently, alongside pathways that I frequent here in Pittsburgh, starting back during the winter. Chalked this up to coincidence… something which I chuckled about… but… it’s odd.
I haven’t mentioned this to anyone, really, but I’ve been seeing cast off singular shoes, on prominent and conspicuous display for a few months now, scattered along the roads here in Pittsburgh. Can it be?
Back tomorrow… with something different… I hope…
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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Monongahela style, Hey Now!
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After a harrowing and honestly terrifying walk alongside the west bound vehicle lanes of Pittsburgh’s East Carson Street, specifically between Becks Run Road and South 33rd street, your humble narrator began to relax a bit.
Couldn’t chance that ‘one of my turns’ might occur, wherein I fall to the ground – crying and quivering while kicking my feet at the sky – consumed by paroxysms of physical cowardice, and raw animal fear, while squealing in a high pitched manner.
Just like every time I see the full moon. The horror…
Once I felt nice and safe again on normal streets, and shortly after quaffing a Gatorade purchased at a nearby gas station convenience store, a few quick steps saw me walking alongside that waterfront trail which mirrors the Monongahela River’s shoreline through Pittsburgh’s ‘South Side.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s an ‘after’ and ‘before’ dealie going in that shot above. To me, at least.
Time was growing short, as I was meant to be meeting up with Our Lady of the Pentacle later on in the afternoon. Had the equivalent of about thirty city blocks to walk, a mere stumble for one such as myself.
Leaned into it, thereby.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Soon, I was walking past the Birmingham Bridge, firmly on my way.
Naturally, I walked too fast, and got there nearly 45 minutes early.
I’m pathologically early, by habit. My Mom used to screech at me: ‘get there early, at least they can’t hold that against you.’ I also think that it’s a sign of respect for whomever you’re meeting that you got there ahead of time. Tardiness should be added as an ‘8th sin’ to the list of deadlies.
Luckily, there was a big pile of rocks that I could sit down on and wait.
A man needs a random pile of rocks, every now and then.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While sitting on that pile of rocks, I waved the camera about.
This is a familiar location, nearby that brewery where I often shoot trains from. Different establishment for this particular evening’s diversion, but same neighborhood.
The signal bells then began to chime, and the barrier arms lowered.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hey Now!
It’s CSX #3380!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That shot above was at the end of this particular scuttle.
Forthcoming, I went back a few days later to that starting point on Mountain Avenue, up on Mount Oliver, and walked in the correct direction for the ‘cool walk’ I had meticulously planned… sigh.
You’ll see all that fairly soon, so get ready!
Back tomorrow, with something different.
“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.
Slideways, then down, not up
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Continuing with photos from a short scuttle in Pittsburgh, on a day I got fairly lucky, were the subject of passing freight trains to come up. Your humble narrator was loathsomely crossing the Allegheny River upon one of the ‘Three Sisters’ bridges. I was busy with the self loathing and all that, so one barely even noticed the weather.
It was a lovely day, with temperatures in the high 50’s and a stiff breeze. The sky was partially overcast, but there was plenty of sunlight. My bad ankle was happy, for once.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Normally, when a municipality hangs a traffic sign on a bridge, it’s telling you what you can’t do. The signage above seems to indicate to drivers that they can do pretty much whatever they want. That kind of fits with how Pittsburgh drivers operate their vehicles, observationally.
I headed over towards a T Light Rail station.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is the scene Downtown, from Liberty Avenue. On a weekday afternoon. It’s like a zombie apocalypse has occurred. Where is everybody?
I pointed my toes towards the T’s Wood Street station, where my chariot would soon arrive and carry me across to the South Side area. For once I didn’t have to worry about which line I was boarding, since I’d be debarking the thing at the first stop on the Monongahela River side.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One descended into the narrow depths, using a moving staircase.
A quick ‘sit down’ ensued, while waiting for the train.
During this interval, I observed the behavioral tics of the humans Yinzers in the same manner as I’d observe zoo animals. ‘Look,’ a dominant male… and over there, that breeding age female must be in estrus, based on the veiled reactions to her from that teenaged male over there… ‘that one’ looks sick, and ‘that one’ is wearing a MAGA hat. A woman over there… she seemed to have two prosthetic legs but was walking without a cane. As it happens, I was midway through my annual listening of Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall’ album while waiting, and these were the songs which were playing.
I’m all ‘effed up. Bah!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
‘On the other side’ is at The T’s Station Square stop, and as I was debarking the facility a Pittsburgh bound T unit rumbled into scene.
The final steps of my day were all about greed.
I’d been very lucky all day in terms of syncing up with passing trains, and was thereby desirous of seeing whether or not my luck might hold out. It did, but that’s tomorrow’s post.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A passing Towboat caught my attention while walking along, as it was all framed up by the Panhandle Bridge. Luckily, I can report to you that this was the last of my ‘rinse and repeat’ routed scuttles, wherein I was constrained in movement by ice and snow. The weather has since ‘cured up’ a bit, and all of the paths are once again clear.
I’ve also allowed my ‘lead time’ to evaporate a bit, in terms of how far in advance these posts are scheduled. These photos were captured better than a month ago, on February 13th. These words are being typed on the morning of March 13th, a Friday.
Back tomorrow with Choo-Choo’s, and a ‘Hey Now!’ or two.
“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.
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.
“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.
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
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.
