Posts Tagged ‘Pickman’
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.
Perry Hilltop and the Swindell Bridge
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This missive is the start of another multi-day series of posts.
Welcome to Perry Hilltop, a plateau neighborhood found in the larger Perry South section on the North Side of Pittsburgh.
This walk, and the series of posts which fell out of it, began right about here. Efforts have been underway to explore Pittsburgh’s ‘North Side,’ which is the former ‘Allegheny City,’ a separate municipality that Pittsburgh annexed at the start of the 20th century.
These photos were gathered on the 9th of April.
As is my habit with such matters, I’ve been following ‘street corridors’ which overlay the past. Modern roads are chosen, obviously, whose path more or less mirrors the historic ones which were cut through the woods and cliff faces.
In the case of this walk, it’s Perrysville Avenue and the Federal Street Extension areas (which you’ll be see in over several incoming posts) which were originally set up as a plank road, between the Allegheny/Ohio River shoreline and less settled areas found up in the hills, with the path ultimately leading to some colonial era Military Fort up north.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The start of this series of postings, however, starts with a tiny bridge which leads to a larger one.
I’m told it’s called the ‘Maple Avenue Bridge,’ a 1929 ‘riveted cantilever truss,’ and I didn’t need to look anything up to tell you that it’s in a deleterious state of repair. There’s even an electrical supply cable sagging down over the thing, hovering right about shoulder height, as measured from when I scuttling along on the roadway’s sidewalk below.
This trip started with one of my one way cab rides from Dormont, which dropped me off right across the street from Maple Avenue Bridge.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
First thing that happened after getting out of the car, some kid walked up to me and asked me if I had any ‘smoke.’
I said ‘nope,’ don’t have anything on me to smoke, and asked him if he was hoping for a cigarette or something. He clarified ‘smoke’ as ‘weed’ and then made clear that he was seeking to sell me some. This misunderstanding and interaction amused both myself and that local entrepreneur. The kid wandered off, whereas I got busy with the camera.
Capitalism, huh?
The 1930 vintage E.H. Swindell (aka East Street) Bridge awaited.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Swindell Bridge is pretty huge, a little over a thousand feet long and five hundred and forty five feet high. It connects two hilltops, spanning the ‘East Street Valley,’ which the I-579 and I-279 high speed roads run through down below.
The Swindell Bridge is – observably – in a horrible state of repair, and a $27 million rehabilitation project is meant to kick in either at the end of this year (2026), or early 2027, which will seek to address its many issues.
As linked to above, they’re going to try and spruce up the Maple Street Bridge as well, and there’s an areal ‘safe streets’ project which is theoretically going to be implemented concurrently with these other projects.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This one looks down from the Swindell Bridge, at the interstate corridor below. As always, I need to state that I love the parabolas, curves, and massing shapes which are created by highway engineers.
Additionally, I hate the historic storyline that resulted in these visually interesting shapes being created. That tale included the demolition of more than 800 homes, and alienating the thousands of families who used to live down there, in the East Street Valley. Bah!
This view look north, although it kind of bends a little bit to the east too.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Looking south/west from the Swindell Bridge, Downtown Pittsburgh just kind of appears, peeking out from behind a hill. It should be mentioned that for the last nearly four years, I’ve been saying that ‘I’ve got to walk over that bridge sometime,’ while referring to the Swindell Bridge, while driving on the ‘Parkway North.’
That’s what the Yinzers call this road.
Check! Another one off my list.
Back tomorrow with more.
“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!, Bottoms Up
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Topsburgh to Bottomsburgh part seven:
Your humble narrator has been keen to capture a shot of a CSX train running through that little bridge seen above for quite a while now.
The Carson Street Rail Bridges is what this dual span is called, just for the curious.
Really, this was a pretty lucky shot to get. I was hoping for it, but… Y’know… it’s just like fishing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s CSX #3141, incidentally.
It was hauling minerals, probably coke or coal. These are the same course of CSX tracks which I often shoot along, whether it’s from that recently shuttered brewery, or from up on the West End Bridge, or along the trails which line the banks of the Monongahela River. When pointing out that a train is heading north-westerly, that means it’s heading in this direction.
Hey Now!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I stuck with the train for a minute. The light was good.
Saying that, this was the final ‘wish’ on my shot list for the day.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One still had to ‘walk out’ of the industrial area and find a safe spot where I’d be able to ‘chill’ while waiting for a ride home. Another three or four miles to the east was a T light rail stop, but the walk there would involve walking along the side of a highway, and marching my mud covered butt right through another scary vehicle interchange.
I consider myself lucky for having not gotten squished by a truck back at that Ohio River Blvd.’s crossing, onto the McKees Rocks Bridge.
Nope.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Here’s a closeup of the rail bridge. Neat.
An amalgamation of adolescents were observed, who were congealing into a mob of unfocused energy nearby, so one skipped along his path a bit quicker.
Teenagers… brrr… no impulse control.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Finally, that’s Chartiers Creek, which winds its way through the South Hills on its way to the Ohio River. Just out of frame, a couple of guys were fishing.
About a block away is a car wash, where I summoned a rideshare cab to come scoop me up and carry the bloated monstrosity my brain is trapped within back to HQ, where Our Lady of the Pentacle and Moe the Dog awaited.
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.
Intermodal Scuttle
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Topsburgh to Bottomsburgh part seven:
This section of road, here in McKees Rocks Bottoms (which I’m referring to as ‘Bottomsburgh’), goes by the super romantic nomen of ‘Intermodal Way.’ Sexy, no? This photo was captured right about here, if you wanted to poke about in the neighborhood via Google Maps.
One of the things which photographers do that drives me absolutely batshit revolves around closely guarding ‘their spots.’ There’s a lot of that sort of gatekeeping, and it’s annoying, so I just give out GPS coordinates to the world and hope that somebody goes there to get better shots than me sometime in the future. You’re welcome.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
All along the tracks, devastation. Collapsing warehouses, busted windows, all kinds of trouble. I’m kind of ‘interested’ in this area, so will definitely be paying a bit of attention to whatever is on the other side of those structures sometime soon.
Saying that, I ain’t an ‘urbex’ kind of guy. I always remind people that ‘I’m like a Vampire and need to be invited in to do my work.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m sure that there’s ‘great’ shots inside of there, but it’s also dangerous, and one seems to have become accidental prone in his old age – apparently.
It had only been a few hours since I had slipped on a patch of ice and then slammed down onto the pavement, but now in addition to my neck and shoulders feeling stiff, I was feeling a bit weird in the teeth (my jaw snapped shut during the fall, causing my teeth to ‘clack.’ I haven’t mentioned this previously, but my dentition is an ongoing and lifetime medical drama, and has been ever since I was a kid. Didn’t win the genetic lottery there, either, I guess.).
Grandma Sarah also told me that ‘you were put on this earth to suffer.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Looking up the hill towards where the people live, up in the slopes.
That newish industrial building in the fore was a bit of a mystery to me, but a quick Google search suggests that it’s home to an outfit called ‘American Steel Span’ which offers steel outbuilding kits.
Quonset my hut, then, and there you go.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s an example of the world’s smartest thing – cut the rail spur off and then create a truck based shipping yard, right alongside the rail yard instead. Might as well cut the piers away at the river and drop them into the water… oh… they did that one too. Sheiste.
This post is the penultimate of this series, I’d mention.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
More abandonment, but this one seemed to have work crews getting up to something inside, so hopefully some productive usage of this land might occur in the future.
Back tomorrow, to say ‘Hey Now!’
“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.
Hitting Bottoms
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Topsburgh to Bottomsburgh part six:
At the southern end of the McKees Rocks Bridge, one enters that eponymous municipality which the bridge is named for. On the other side, you’re within the City of Pittsburgh.
There’s several different sections and styles of life found in McKees Rocks – normal ‘urban’ streets with wood frame homes, private suburb style development can be found up in the hills, there’s a bunch of ‘worker cottage’ style dwellings in a flood plain section that is called ‘the Bottoms.’
There’s lots and lots of commercial activity: warehousing, light and heavy industry, and a fairly enormous railyard which is operated by the CSX Railroading outfit. Saying that, there’s also a good number of abandoned industrial and commercial buildings here too.
The rest of my walk played out in these ‘bottoms.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’d be debarking the bridge nearby that first line of houses at the left of the shot above, and then negotiating myself into the industrial zone. Those aren’t ‘mill town’ houses, incidentally. That’s something else entirely. Worker cottages are also a different banana.
Ain’t so pedestrian friendly down there, I’d mention.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My plan involved following that long road parallel to the rail tracks. People just cross back and forth across these tracks all the time. I don’t.
My old pal Bernie Ente once cautioned me about being wary of the active tracks nearby Newtown Creek, as a switch could remotely trigger and trap your foot. As with everything else Bernie told me all those years ago, it was good advice and I stick to it.
I also don’t text while I drive, but that has nothing to do with Bernie. I just try to not do stupid things, although I do stupid things all the time. I do try, though.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It seems that if you need to park a semi in the Pittsburgh area overnight, there’s a parking lot in McKees Rocks just for that. It’s connected to a fairly large gas station, with multiple diesel ‘stalls’ for truckers to fill their tanks.
Finally, I negotiated myself over to that road without the sidewalks pictured above, and started heading away from the bridge.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A line of warehouse and light industrial buildings lined the tracks, as you’d expect. The steeple of that church caught my eye.
Economically speaking, things didn’t look so hot along the rails. More on that observation coming up tomorrow.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
So, this is where all that walking led me to.
I still had to walk ‘out’ and find a spot where I could summon a rideshare to get back to HQ, but that section of the walk ‘out’ involved another one of my ‘shot list’ objectives. I really wanted that rail shot…
More on that tomorrow, and the end of this particular scuttle.
“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 