Posts Tagged ‘Pittsburgh’
It’s a train!
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After scuttling about for nearly an hour along the waterfront in Pittsburgh’s South Side section, a humble narrator found himself at an ‘at grade’ rail crossing. Contrary to normal habit, I decided to sit down and wait. I played with my phone for about twenty minutes until I heard the train horn in the distance and then the signal arms descended.
That’s a CSX freight train, and it was hauling minerals. Specifically, the cars were labeled with the screed “Coke Express,” so there you are.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The locomotive is of the General Electric ES44DC type, manufactured sometime between 2004 and 2010, which provides about 4,400 HP of locomotive power. If interested in the nitty gritty – check out this railfan page. I like taking pictures of trains, but don’t really “nerd out” about the things.
The cars that the train was pulling were filled with hot Coke, which is what you can turn coal into via an industrial process. It left behind a contrail of coal and coke dust, and the park smelled like an unlit BBQ after it passed by for quite a few minutes and until the prevailing wind blew the odor away.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After walking back to the Mobile Oppression Platform, which is what I call the car, I drove back up the hill towards HQ. Stuck at a red light, I couldn’t resist getting a shot of what the locals refer to as “heavy traffic” leading into the Liberty Tunnel. Said tunnel is bored through Mount Washington and leads to the South Hills region where HQ is located.
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.
Scuttle in South Side
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Desirous of some exercise, and needing to take a walk, I found myself back on the South Side of Pittsburgh. There’s ‘rail trails’ here, along with a park and a lot of very modern redevelopment which attempts to fill the space left behind by a former Steel Mill. Statuary is installed within the park commemorating the former occupation of the land.
There’s a sweet dog park here as well, which made me miss my beloved Zuzu the dog, but I wasn’t here to reminisce. As mentioned, some exercise was on my menu.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Monongahela River flows past this spot, and the Tug Winnie C was towing mineral barges eastwards. It doesn’t matter if they’re pushing, tied up ‘on the hip,’ or pulling barges it’s always called “towing.”
This is from under the Birmingham Bridge, if you’re curious. I’ve been down here before, when I visited the 3 Rivers Heritage Trail back in February.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A boatload of Cops were setting up a couple of officers to do some diving while their patrol boat was tied up along the shoreline. From the look of it, they were in training mode rather than actively doing Cop stuff. Scuba gear was observed.
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.
McKees Rocks
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As it happened, I found myself scouting about in the McKees Rocks community where I encountered another staggering religious building. That’s the Archangel Gabriel Parish’s St. Mary, Help of Christians Church, which is part of the Pittsburgh Roman Catholic Diocese. This was one of the times when I randomly point the car’s nose in one direction or another to see what’s what in an area I haven’t visited yet.
The home town of Oxi-Clean salesman Billy Mays and cartoonist Jeff Smith, McKees Rocks is a municipal subdivision (a Borough) of Allegheny County, as is the City of Pittsburgh.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This was a “run and gun” sort of explore, and the towers of the Church acted as a navigational instrument for my somewhat ephemeral visit. That’s some church, I have to say. Must be magnificent within it.
Another one for my list of places to try and find a way to get the camera into sometime in the future, when the stars are right.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One continued on his way, following the Allegheny River back towards Downtown Pittsburgh and eventually back to the South Hills where HQ is found in the Borough of Dormont.
I continue to be amazed by Pittsburgh and it’s environs.
“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.
McArdle Roadway Viaduct
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While I was cracking out the shots of St. John’s featured in yesterday’s post, it was noticed that I was particularly close to sort of a little bridge which I’d driven over countless times. Every single one of those times, I’ve made a mental note to look it up, and to figure out a way to access its pedestrian and bike partition. I’ve also made a mental note to look up who this P.J. McArdle guy was, and it turns out he was actor Zachary Quinto’s Great Grandfather, so there’s a Spock/Star Trek angle. Win.
Turns out the bridge is called the McArdle Roadway Viaduct, and it’s part of the P.J. McArdle Roadway – which ramps traffic up off of the flat lands south side of Pittsburgh and towards the Liberty Tunnel which is punched through the base of Mount Washington.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
When you’ve got a de facto cliff adjoining the confluence of three rivers sitting in the center of your City, engineering challenges abound. There’s the automobile and other vehicle lanes, and there’s also a series of heavy freight rail tracks, all terraced and woven in on the side of the cliff. This shot is from about a 1/4 mile or so west of the bridge structure, as a note.
Historicbridges.org has a nice page about the McArdle viaduct, accessible at this url.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve been trying to figure out a way to get to the top of the viaduct and walk down the frankly terrifying sidewalk which leads to the walkway on the bridge. Problem is that the top of the walkway is where the entrance to the Liberty Tunnel is, and that area ain’t exactly what I’d refer to as “pedestrian friendly.” There’s some pretty choice and “less common” views of the city center available from there, so…
Back next week with Choo-Choo’s.
“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.
St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Church
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As I’ve been roaming about here in Pittsburgh, a certain church building has been continually catching my eye. On South 7th street at East Carson Street in what I presume to be the South Side Flats neighborhood is where you’ll find it. St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Church’s Parish was organized in 1891, the church building itself was erected in 1895, and then enlarged in 1917. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
Ukrainian Catholicism is a complicated story, so I’m just going to refer you to the Wikipedia page about it. There’s Kings and Warlords, Mongols and Russians, Schisms and Synods. All are involved in a multiple millennia long storyline that goes all the back to the beginnings of the Christian era in Europe. Suffice to say that this organization is what the Vatican regards as a “Particular Church” which is part of its organizational hegemony and its adherents are considered as full fledged Catholics despite the Church not using the Latin Rite. The Ukrainian Catholics organization also includes a Major Archbishop who is part of the pecking order back in Rome.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Those two paragraphs up there are not everything I’ve been able to find out about this branch of the Catholic family, but truth be told I don’t want to deep dive into that sort of thing and it’ll probably piss off some of you if I do. On a side note, A few weeks ago, I showed you a photo of and mentioned a Byzantine Catholic Church in Pittsburgh’s Oakland section. Saying all that, it’s a pretty interesting thing to read up on, the history of Europe’s churches. If you use the term “Europe” in a larger sense than its geographic boundary, you’ll find other people’s interpretations of the material amongst the neighbors. Notably – the Copts of the Levant and North Africa are pretty interesting.
What drew me here was curiosity, which was piqued while I was moving around other sections of Pittsburgh and my eye kept on drifting toward this church. Beautiful building.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Ukrainians use the so called “Greek” or “Patriarchal Cross,” and this spectacular Mosaic was arranged over the lintel and under the cruciform of the main entryway. Unfortunately, I didn’t go inside, but as I always say – I’m like a Vampire, I need to be invited into a building in order to do my work. Hopefully, I’ll manage to get to know somebody from St. John’s in the future. It’s got to be amazing in there.
I really dig religious art of this kind. I’d love to know all of the references that the various parts of it point to. Flag, blue shirt, water, palm tree – every thing there has to have some meaning.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A sportsball field of some kind, quite modern in design with bleachers and everything, adjoins the Church. I speculated for a moment about whether or not there might have been a parochial school in its footprint once which was connected to the church, but I haven’t been able to find anything to back up my theory. All up and down the Monongahela River, which is a few blocks away, there were Steel Mills and Rail Yards. A lot is missing from the scene witnessed here in 1917 when the expanded version of the building opened.
As mentioned, this place has been catching my eye for a while.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Here’s a long shot of the place, nestled into the foothills of Mount Washington. The South Side Flats neighborhood that St. John’s is at the western end of has a really interesting catalogue of private homes and commercial buildings which could be described as “old timey.” There’s a thriving night life industry in this area with lots of bars and clubs which, as I’ve read, draws in the college kids.
Hopefully, I’ll find a way to get me and the camera invited inside the building sometime, would love to get some photos of the interior.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I covered a decent patch of ground on this particular day. One drove up and down the streets hereabouts, which were luckily pretty traffic free, scouting out interesting things to return to on foot in the future.
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.
The Newtown Pentacle 