Posts Tagged ‘Monongahela River’
Sometimes, it’s just odd out there
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On a recent afternoon, your humble narrator just threw his hands up in frustration and announced to Our Lady of the Pentacle that he was going out for a walk. She recognized the look in my eyes, that of a wild beast yearning for freedom, and said ‘have a good time.’
One soon found himself at ‘The T’ light rail’s First Avenue Station, where the Panhandle Bridge spans the Monongahela River.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This wasn’t going to be a long walk, at all. It was hot as heck, and I had a lot on my mind. Go to the bar and suck down a few beers sort of thoughts.
I’ve had to pick and choose my battles since returning from NYC, as the weather has been absolutely horrific all month. High heat and humidity, lots and lots of rain, and a set of competing priorities. As described yesterday, I’m currently enjoying a spate of medical tests designed to gauge and document my overall robustness and spot trends.
I don’t like being touched by strangers, let alone stripping down to my skivvies in their presence and letting them irradiate me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As I’ve mentioned in the past, one of my superpowers is the ability to containerize negative emotions while situational stressors are at work, and then allow the stored up psychic pressure to bleed off at a more opportune time. Essentially, I have a ‘rage bladder,’ and every now and then one needs to let off some steam and bleed it out.
I was by myself, of course. God’s lonely man.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My pathway to the beer taps involved a short walk of less than two miles. This wasn’t an exercise day, and I convinced myself that the effort would be worth it if a few train shots were captured. I know that I mention drinking a lot, but I don’t actually drink all that much. A few beers, maybe once every couple of weeks, these days.
Back in Astoria, my crew of knuckleheads and I had a standing Friday night ‘after work’ meetup at ‘the local,’ but again – a couple/three pints of beer consumed over multiple hours is my deal. I sip, rather than chug.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Monongahela River and the Smithfield Street Bridge came into view, and one pointed his toes in the required direction. This is part of the same trail pictured above, incidentally.
That’s when I saw it.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A single, abandoned, shoe. Can it be?
Has the Queens Cobbler followed me to the Paris of Appalachia?
Back next week with maximum Choo-Choo.
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Homesteading
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Easter Sunday found me lurking in the confines of Homestead, PA.
That’s a meditative labyrinth in the shot above, and I hung around this spot for about twenty minutes until some group of hippies who were walking it had moved on. I had zero hope for a train moving over that bridge, although it’s something I look for whenever I’m in this area.
Circumstance had carried me here, but I wasn’t really ‘feeling it’ as far as walking and shooting goes. There’s great opportunities nearby, but not so much on Easter Sunday. Trains in particular were completely absent, which is saying something amazing for anyone who is familiar with the normal frequency of locomotive traffic in Homestead.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The campus of the former steel mill here has been converted into a sprawling shopping and entertainment complex called ‘The Waterfront,’ which seems to be pretty successful. The actual town of Homestead is up in the hills overlooking the Waterfront. It’s kind of different banana up there, observationally, but I’ve only chatted with a few people that live in this area. One friend hated it, and complained constantly about the train noise. As soon as his lease was up, he moved away seeking quiet.
The longer I live in Pittsburgh, the more that I perceive ‘corridors.’ When people move around in the region, they’ll stick to these corridors. Sometimes the corridor is formed by a high speed or volume road, such as a highway or an interstate, but it could also be a high volume local road that forms the corridor. I began exploring this concept back in Queens, when I would call Northern Blvd. ‘The Carridor’ or talk about Roosevelt Avenue as being the ‘7 train corridor’ and so on.
Homestead seems to be part of a ‘corridor’ which includes nearby Munhall and Duquesne, West Mifflin, Rankin, Swissvale, Braddock, Clairton, which are all connected physically by a series of ‘back roads’ running through the hills, and socially by churches and the diasporic families which attend their services. These back roads were carved out of the landscape by the steel industry, apparently, and residential development just followed the roads.
Fascinating.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I decided to get all fancy for this one, given that without the razzle dazzle of a train moving over the bridge it was otherwise a fairly plain image… so the tripod was set up, and a filter applied to the lens and… well there you are.
Back tomorrow with something different – at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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Remains of that day
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After a four mile walk, your humble narrator was waving around a wide angle lens, for a last few shots before heading back home to Dormont. I did stop off at the nearby brewery I like, the one alongside the CSX train tracks, and had a recovery lager before summoning a ride back to HQ. The ankle was pissed off.
Pictured above is part of Colors Park, where graffiti and street artists are invited to add their flourished to the place. Great spot this.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another CSX train shot past me, and I’m sorry to say that running over to and climbing on top of a series of concrete jersey barriers to get the shot isn’t in the cards at the moment.
When crossing streets or just moving around the world right now, I have to constantly say ‘Mitch, you can’t run right now’ to myself. You know things are serious when my inner voice addresses me by name.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The end of this scuttle, and the last shot from this particular excursion. At the right is the City’s jail. The Liberty and Panhandle Bridges are in the center, and Downtown Pittsburgh is in the background. That’s the Monongahela River, of course.
Back tomorrow 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.
Wide angle scuttling
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After scuttling down quite a steep hill, and traipsing across an urban flood plain, your humble narrator finally arrived at the waterfront trail adjoining the Monongahela River here in Pittsburgh. This was the final leg of a constitutional walk, and right around here is where my legs transmogrified from meat into being composed entirely of lead weights.
I will work harder. Push, push, push.
For some quirky reason, I decided this would be a great spot to change lenses, and loaded a 16mm wide angle prime lens onto the camera gizmo.
Gotta have some fun every now and then, ay?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A CSX train appeared on the other side of some verge, but because I had just added the wide angle thingamabob to the equation, there was no zooming in on it or anything. Saying that, I think that’s kind of an interesting shot above, but I don’t know why.
Along I limped. It was getting quite warm out, and as mentioned above: this was the section of the walk where I ran ‘out of gas.’ Fatigue doesn’t exactly sneak up on me in this post broken ankle interval, but when it does arrive, swinging your leg out for the next step becomes a bit of an act of will. My intention for the day was to exercise, and that tends to bring a some soreness into the equation.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The South Tenth street bridge, lurking along the trail, used to be the center of a rather large homeless colony, just last summer. It’s an election year, however, and Pittsburgh’s Mayor (who reminds me a LOT of the Dope from Park Slope, Bill de Blasio) is being primaried. Don’t know enough about Pittsburgh politics to even try and understand or comment on the situation, but it’s interesting to watch how things play out.
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.
316,800 inch long scuttle, part 5
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The last leg of the longest walk I’ve been able to execute, and really the first one which I’ve truly enjoyed without pain or discomfort (ok, there was a bit of swelling), since breaking my ankle last fall.
I was walking on one of the rail trails, chosen for its flat character, and along the Monongahela River shoreline after having crossed the West End Bridge. Pictured above is the underside of the Fort Pitt bridge with downtown Pittsburgh in the background.
Fort Pitt is sort of the ‘master cylinder’ for traffic flow here in Pittsburgh. On one side it leads to a tunnel which feeds traffic to the south onto an interstate roadway (I-376), whereas in the other direction it feeds traffic either to downtown, another high speed interstate roadway heading eastbound, or onto the Fort Duquesne Bridge which offers connections to the west and north. Approaching this bridge at the high volume times of day is a major mistake which drivers should avoid.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The rail trail proceeds through the Station Square area, and it follows the coast of the Monongahela River and the CSX Subdivision Tracks which parallel it. Onward, soldier, onward. I opted to continue on towards that brewery I like, which was maybe a mile or so beyond the position where the shot above was captured.
Wasn’t planning on making a ‘night’ of it, rather I was desperate to use the bathroom and a pint of beer or two would definitely reignite my flagging energy levels. It’s been a long long time since I walked five miles, and the atrophy suffered in the upper legs due to the wheelchair interval is something I’m assiduously working on reversing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Along the way, a somewhat unoccluded view of the ‘colors’ house I showed y’all at the start of March appeared, and I gathered a shot of it for the archives. So quirky.
The pavement gets a bit difficult in this area, as it’s all busted up from trucks parking on the sidewalk, and the underlying Appalachian soil beneath the road is absolutely legendary at producing potholes. Had to be a bit cautious here. Remind myself that I’m still no where near ‘100%.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Normally, I’d be walking along that fenceline dividing the CSX tracks from the trail, but in that direction the trail is blocked by a gigantic pile of railroad ballast stones. It’s only about four feet high, and fairly easy to surmount – if you’re not concerned about the recovery of your shattered ankle. Discretion being the better part of valor, I opted to go with the broken sidewalks and pothole scarred street path instead.
Missed a couple of trains, but there we are.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While scuttling through, a T light rail unit exited the Golden Triangle and crossed over the Monongahela River via the Panhandle Bridge, and it began the climb up Mount Washington via Arlington Avenue.
Finally, I reached the Sly Fox Brewery. After ‘dewhizzulating,’ which is how I colloquially refer to the act of urination, I ordered a lovely O’Reilly’s stout and decided to sit inside at the bar for a while. Met a nice bloke named Jimmy, who was a retired pilot, that regaled me with tales of his travels. Nice guy.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was time to summon a rideshare car to carry me home, and the Lyft service was engaged in that pursuit. Whew.
Five miles is 316,800 inches, in case you’ve been wondering all week.
Back next week 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.
The Newtown Pentacle 