Posts Tagged ‘North Shore’
Scuttle’s end
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Swindell Bridge to North Shore, part eight.
This is the last post in this series, which began up in the Perry South section nearby the Swindell Bridge here in Pittsburgh. We then followed Perrysville Avenue to the Federal Street Extension, got some rail shots at Allegheny Commons Park, and here we are – crossing the Allegheny River on the way to ‘the train.’
I’d be heading back to HQ in nearby Dormont, and using the T light Rail to do so.
As you may have noticed, I’m a bit of an enthusiast for the light rail service, which makes me stand out a bit here in Pittsburgh. People would rather spend $25 on a cab to ‘get into and out of town’ than $2.75 on the train. Weird.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Slow Danger!
That’s the worst kind of danger.
My ‘dogs were barking’ by this stage of things, but ‘push, push, push.’ Back and shoulders were a bit sore as well. I was thirsty, and concerned about the future.
All told, this ended up being a 7ish mile long walk. The path got my heart beating quickly a few times, surmounting hills and such, and the goal of ‘hitting the fronts of the thighs and hips’ on downward slopes was accomplished. I’m still regaining strength and endurance – post broken ankle ‘orthopedic incident’ – and ‘downhill’ is currently my jam.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One made it to the ‘other side,’ onto the central peninsula of Pittsburgh.
I would have boarded the T on the North Side if it wasn’t for all of the NFL Draft preparations. Bah!
It was decided that the Gateway Station was likely the closest one to my physical location, and one headed there.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is one of the underground ‘subway’ style stops on the T light Rail. It’s built into an old freight train tunnel.
I used the elevator rather than the stairs, because…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Brutalism meets 1980’s style ‘modern,’ that’s how I’d describe this station’s esthetic. One of the odd things about the T system is that few of the stations look anything like the next one.
Sure… there’s similar stainless steel accents, signage, and primary color plastic panels… but Gateway doesn’t look like Station Square, which doesn’t look like First Avenue, which doesn’t look like South Hills Junction, which doesn’t look like Washington Junction… you get the idea.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Finally, my chariot was arriving, and the ride back to HQ..
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.
Scuttling onto the McKees Rocks Bridge
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Topsburgh to Bottomsburgh part four:
One managed to safely cross that gnarly intersection mentioned yesterday, an act whose execution caused me no end of existential anxiety, and soon the camera was positioned onto the McKees Rocks Bridge.
I’ve only walked this bridge a single time, and have been desirous of a return, as I think it’s fantastic.
This particular scuttle, which ended up being just a bit under ten miles horizontally, also saw me descending better than a thousand feet in elevation from ‘Observatory Hill’ in the Perry South area, nearby the Davis Avenue Pedestrian Bridge, moved through the neighborhoods of Brighton Heights and then Marshall Shadeland, crossing this bridge, and then heading down to the flood plains of the Ohio River in ‘McKees Rocks’s ‘Bottoms’ section on the other side of this bridge.
I get ahead of myself, however, and we are at the ‘crossing the bridge’ part of all that.
Just in case you’ve been wondering what the ‘Topsburgh and Bottomsburgh’ thing is about.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
McKees Rocks bridge is the longest span in Allegheny County, and it overlooks the massive Alcosan wastewater treatment plant found on the Ohio River on its northern approaches.
Pictured are – what looks to me – like aeration tanks, which wastewater professionals use to separate solid materials out of the ‘flow.’ Basically, the aeration causes solids to drop to the bottom for later collection. Solids can be anything from a matchbox car that some kid flushed down the toilet, to the rocks and stones and other detritus carried into the sewer grates during rainstorms.
My pals at the Sewer Plant in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint once told me that they had a bowling ball shoot out of one of the incoming pipes during a storm, which entered the plant in the manner of a cannonball. It caused all sorts of damage. The question of how a bowling ball ended up in NYC’s sewer system remains unanswered.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Looking across the Ohio River in a more or less southern direction for this one. I enjoy this bridge for a number of reasons, but primarily it’s an absolute ‘cat seat’ in terms of altitude and POV over the waterway, and the views are just fantastic.
Also, I like pointing the camera at industrial stuff, and there’s plenty of that visible from up here.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Saying that, I ended up spending close to an hour moving over the bridge as everytime I started walking, something caught my eye and I had to stop to get a shot. That’s the Fort Pitt Bridge in the far distance, catching a bit of light while standing in a cloud of rising mists.
As mentioned in my recent telling of the ‘slipped on ice and fell flat on my ass’ story, it had been fiendishly cold the night before, and the weather on this particular day saw temperatures in the high 50’s and low 60’s. That meant that a whole lot of misty weirdness was rising out of the hollows, crevasses, and ravines of Pittsburgh.
Lighting conditions were changing several times a minute, and things got photographically complex.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Me? I had a literal mile and a half of bridge to walk.
Pretty much loitering at this point. Waiting for a subject to pop into view, and scanning around for activity worth taking a picture of.
These moments are great tests for me, as a man who exhibits zero evidence of patience, and believes that the universe only shows him things that ‘need seeing’ when he randomly walks by them and that ‘you can’t force something to happen.’ One must compel himself to linger.
I remind myself of another personal aphorism – ‘it’s like fishing’ – and that you need to wait for a bite as you can’t order the fish onto your hook.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
You may notice how these shots continually look back towards that set of railroad tracks. One of the things I was looking for was rail activity.
I stuck the headphones into the ear holes, and started listening to that good old ‘History of Rome’ podcast again. I think I was on an episode numbered somewhere in the high 90’s, around the time of the Tetrarchy, but this walk was perpetrated on the 24th of March and today is the sixth of May, so… late in the game Italy based Rome, basically.
I find that ‘spoken word,’ as in podcast or audiobook, doesn’t lodge into my brain the way that the written word does. I need to listen to an audiobook at least a couple of times for it to ‘stick’ into my brain, whereas I can usually read a printed book, and then be able to quote it directly for a long bit afterwards.
Different parts of the language center in the brain, I guess.
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.
Squeaky wheel
Thurs
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A few random shots from the end of a satisfying scuttle. I swear, the working guys have no idea how esthetically pleasing I find these sorts of arrangements they leave behind. They’re artists, and don’t even know it.
I was moving through the area surrounding Allegheny Commons Park, which has a trench running through it for the railroads.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Norfolk Southern #1832 came through, heading north/west. It was hauling short blue cargo boxes, of the type which sewer solids are shipped within. Likely heading towards the sewer plant nearby the McKees Rocks Bridge, or Ohio. A lot of things nobody else wants end up in Ohio. I’ve been there, and really – they pretty much sent their best to Washington in Vance.
Stay out of Ohio, you’re not ready for what you might see there.
Regardless, one haughtily scuttled on.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This truck caught my eye. I was intrigued by those Doberman silhouettes silk screened on the thing. Also, that’s one crazy truck, yo.
My steps carried me into the ‘ceremonial center’ section of the Coty of Pittsburgh, where the Stadiums are found, and where there’s coincidental opportunities to board the T light rail service and ‘get out of dodge.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
See that mound on the right side of the shot? Coal mine’s historical entrance, as it turns out.
As I mentioned a few posts ago, this coal thing suddenly brings everything into a place where it makes sense. I’m not ‘smart enough’ to really delve into the topic here yet, but I’ve started reading up on the Pittsburgh Coal Company Trust, and others.
Heck of a story there. Eventually, I’ll know enough of it to point y’all at primary sources on the subject.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The T station came into sight, just as one of the light rail units rose out of the tunnel that it travels under downtown within, and climbed up the truss to the terminal stop opposite Acrisure Stadium.
Most of the Yinzers I meet ‘poo-poo’ the T, but I ride it all the time.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My chariot arrived, and as soon as those doors opened, I was ensconced in a seat. This was about a six or seven mile walk, all told. I had a nice time, and nobody threw any rotting fruit at me, for a change.
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.
Shiny, happy, Pittsburgh
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A comedic attempt at ‘cleaning things up’ has been underway for a bit here in Pittsburgh. Anticipation of the NFL Draft event has driven the local Government into a paroxysm: cleaning hillsides of trash, power washing the graffiti away, breaking up homeless encampments…
If they put this much effort into things regularly…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On the final steps of a fairly long scuttle, and I think this one was about 8 or 9 miles – walking up and down hills, and then long empty streets, and then to the terminal stop on the T Light Rail.
Days like this one involve a one way cab ride to the top of wherever I’m going that day, and then picking my path back to mass transit if at all possible. It’s mainly about cost, this, and not bookending my day with $20+ cab rides.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Saying that, what you’re going to seeing in the next couple of weeks involved exactly that. Pittsburgh is a motor vehicle based city, after all.
I don’t drive when out on my excursions, usually, as I’d have to find my way back to the car and that limits how far I can wander away from it.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Across the street from Acrisure Stadium, and the entrance to the T light rail station above.
I’ve been enjoying these north side walks, incidentally. Physically challenging and revelatory in many ways. There’s a couple more of these in the pipeline, so hoping that y’all find them as interesting as I did.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
‘Upstairs’ at the T station, and my chariot is arriving.
I’ve also ventured out of the state since these photos were captured. Used the car for that, obviously, but you won’t be seeing those posts for a bit.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I poured my pre corpse into a seat, onboard this Red Line T.
A bit of organization needing handling as far as my camera bag goes, a task which was accomplished while riding the service.
Soon, I was back in Dormont where Moe the dog squealed as I walked in.
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.
Hey Now!, North Side Pittsburgh
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another one of my ‘short walk’ days occurred, and one soon found himself shambling up the hill and towards the T light rail station in Pittsburgh’s Dormont. The transit service soon deposited my pre-corpse onto a platform at its terminal stop, nearby Acrisure Stadium, on the city’s north side.
Your humble narrator slopped out onto the platform, in the style of a bucket of guts being poured into a pig’s pen. After gathering myself together and arranging the various bag and camera straps about my fecund torso, one scuttled forth – a localized condition of entropy autonomously moving about on a sunny day, while wrapped in a filthy black raincoat. Don’t look, you won’t like what you see. I don’t.
It had warmed up in Pittsburgh, finally, which saw those omnipresent occlusions of ice and snow which had been annoying me finally dissolve away and go down the drain. Bah!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My first instinct was to follow the river path, and cross one of the bridges over the Allegheny, but instead I headed north. Have to follow your nose sometimes. As it would turn out, this ended up being a pretty lucky outing for a creature as malefic and horrible to behold as myself. I caught my reflection in a car window, and then that pane of safety glass cracked as the gustation and sensory stalk jutting out of my T-Shirt was turned towards it. ‘Hissss,’ I said, and moved on.
My toes were pointed northwards, and then I suddenly had to urinate.
Such is life, huh? In between seasons for the sports enthusiasts, Pittsburgh does not stock the streets hereabout with Port-a-Potties, as they do during the months when the athletes gambol and toss balls to each other.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I headed off to a spot where I might find the 90 seconds of privacy required to ‘water the plants.’ Luckily, that was in a parking lot nearby the Clark Building, which has been mentioned here before, along with the neighboring Merchant Street Rail Bridge. A few very frustrating attempts to roam around this ‘zone’ in prior weeks were blocked by ice conditions on the pavement.
One leaned into it and soon found himself looking at the Merchant Street Rail Bridge, and that’s when I heard that particular diesel ‘thrumming’ sound which indicates a freight train is getting close.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hey Now!
Norfolk Southern #7001 appeared, with somebody inside the operator’s cabin keeping an eye on something external to the train. Any ideas, railfan types? The train was moving extremely slowly, if that means anything. I’m told that it’s a rebuilt EMD SD60E model locomotive, one which is a combination of two older models. Neat!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This was the first of several times I’d get lucky with trains on this particular scuttle. I’d like to think that I’ve finally figured something out regarding the subject and its habits, but the reality is that I just got lucky with my timing. Serendipity, as I often say.
Saying that, I often lose when playing Solitaire.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The train was heading more or less eastwards, towards Etna or one of the multiple rail bridge interchanges which the rail company maintains along those tracks which provide egress to the central peninsular section of Pittsburgh.
After #7001 passed through, I spun on my heels and decided to be all greedy. I wanted more.
One headed over to the rail trench in Allegheny Commons Park, which is where 7001 had just came from, and sat down to wait and see if anything else was going to happen. It did.
More on all that 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.
The Newtown Pentacle 