Posts Tagged ‘Pittsburgh’
A real nowhere man
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A very productive constitutional walk, during which I had scuttled out somewhere in the neighborhood of about five to six miles (or – as I call it – a short walk) and then loitered around the Great Allegheny Passage’s ‘Whitaker Flyover’ pedestrian bridge – where the trains just kept on coming – was accomplished and one had reversed course for the walk back to the car.
Saying all that, it was that time of the day which I describe as ‘solar maximum’ and the weather was getting ‘shvitzy.’ I began heading back to the lot where I had parked the Mobile Oppression Platform, adjoining the Homestead Pumphouse site. From there, I’d start the roughly thirty minute drive back to HQ. One last thing, though…
I had planned on making a quick stop to wave the camera around, at this 1900 vintage ‘Union Railroad Rankin Hot Metal Bridge #35 (aka the Carrie Furnace Hot Metal Bridge)’ and to commit some photography upon it while on my way. I’ve mentioned this structure before.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Quoting from the post linked to above:
“This span was used as a rail bridge, is some 483 feet long, and is supported by three stout masonry piers. It was built to connect the Carrie Furnace and Edgar Thomson works on the northern shore to the rail network found on the south side of the (Monongahela) river, and it also served as a connection to nearby U.S. Steel plants in Homestead and Clairton, as well as offering ingress for incoming rail shipments of coal and coke, which fueled the various operations.”
Y’know, I hope to never have to rewrite that paragraph.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Saying that, the methodology I’ve been talking about since moving to Pittsburgh is now entering a different phase. There’s still an infinity of experiences that are novel and still unknown, but I’m also starting to choose certain subjects which I’ve found intriguing and will be returning to explore them a bit more deeply.
To analogize all this in an very, very NYC sort of manner, where I’m at is – ‘I figured out where some a dem subway stations is’s, now’s I’s gotta go ridin on da friggin train to see’n where’s dose mothaflowas go… feel me?’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The photos in this section are roughly from the middle of the bridge. I was walking approximately south to north here, and the approaches of the thing have been cut and demolished on the Carrie Furnace side of the Monongahela River.
This really must have been something to see, ‘back in the day.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Pretty epic views from up here, but this bridge is in an advanced state of decay. I recently had a Tetanus Booster, so I was feeling pretty good about myself right about here, but there’s all sorts of trip hazards and rusted out decking that you can easily get hurt by. Me? I’ve inhabited places like this all my life and know how not to get hurt around this sort of thing.
It’s nothing crazy, but be careful if visiting because medical bills suck.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s a decayed wooden walkway on the outside superstructure of the bridge, which looked just like a Darwin Award waiting to happen. No Bueno.
The section I was walking on was concrete and steel, and still pretty solid. Heavily rusted steel that you could probably punch a hole in with a screwdriver (or just your finger) was everywhere, but it’s still steel.
Back tomorrow.
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Denial of Service
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Recently, a humble narrator’s pursuit of exercise and outdoor time found him once again at Pittsburgh’s Seldom Seen Greenway, located in the larger City’s Beechview section. As long time readers will tell you, I’ve been haunting a set of rail tracks here which are infrequently crossed by rail traffic, and then returning home empty handed for the effort.
There’s a parking lot, and the magnificently well appointed brick tunnel which leads you under the rail trestle, and which then leads back into a set of paths that are garlanded along the hills, is pictured above. One of those paths leads up a hill, and carries you to those rail tracks.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Boy, that would be a nice shot this would be if there was a train in it, huh? If you like it, I’ve got several shots of these empty tracks I could show you.
A Wheeling & Lake Erie train is said to come through here about four times a day, on an irregular schedule. I’ve put in a lot of hours standing around here and waiting for that to happen at this point. Persistent effort is one of my ‘things’ so it’s just a matter of time until I get it. This spot is about a 15 minute drive from HQ, so no biggie, but it’s frustrating.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After about an hour, one threw in the towel and headed back down the path. I was out for a walk rather than a ‘stand around,’ after all, and the whole point of this exercise was ultimately exercise – so I got back to kicking my feet around in the dirt and mud.
Back tomorrow with the product of a far more successful outing.
“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.
W&LE, Montour Westland
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Created – as it was – from the remains of bankrupted railroad’s right of way, there are several branches of the Montour Trail found snaking around the hinterlands of Pittsburgh.
One of these branch lines, in particular – the Westland – is fascinating to me. The somewhat sudden emergence of an industry which harvests gas from the Marcellus Shale formation in Western Pennsylvania (and in other nearby states here in Appalachia) using the hydrological fracturing – aka ‘Fracking’ – methodology, has caused a new set of rail tracks to emerge that more or less mirrors the route of the old Montour Railroad.
Recent endeavor found a humble narrator in PA.’s Washington County, walking along the Montour Trail, and also encountering a rail yard used by the Wheeling & Lake Erie outfit along this route.
For a history of the Westland Branch of the Montour RR – I photographed a signboard which the rail to trail people have installed.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This was a lucky catch for me, as I had literally just scuttled up the trail from a nearby parking lot, and my arrival is exactly when the gates of the rail yard signaled an alarm and then opened up to receive this train. In the distance, a young eagle was twisting in the sky, and you could just make out the rumble of a diesel engine coming my way before it arrived.
The land surrounding this area is semi rural. A dairy farmer has a small property nearby and you could both smell and hear his cows just beyond the tree line. The trail itself was barely being used, besides myself there was some other guy jogging about and a young woman riding around on some fancy pants bicycle was also spotted.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Wheeling & Lake Erie train was hauling mainly tanker cars. Each one bore a screed exclaiming that ‘Liqueified Natural Gas’ was contained within. The fracking thing… well, I’m new here and I’ve got opinions.
Just like butt holes, opinions are, everyone’s got ‘em.
Serious consequence to ground water and seismic stability accompany the practice of ‘Fracking.’ Future generations will rue the day that our current civilization decided that harvesting this gas was a good idea.
Saying that, this industrial pursuit has accomplished a fifty year long quest to decouple the American economy from energy dependence on the Middle East, and consequently the United States has now become the leading exporter of hydrocarbons to the rest of the world. This has allowed the Foreign Policy types to introduce the Arabians to the Chinese and let them work things out between themselves. In my opinion, never have two groups of people deserved each other more, but that brings me back to buttholes.
It’s… complicated.
“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.
I scuttle the line
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
‘You can’t see anything from a highway,’ I always say, and thereby I’ve set my Google maps navigation app to avoid them – whenever I’m not in a hurry – and to instead route my driving path through local streets instead of the highways and interstates. This practice often piques interest in an area, and a mental note is made to return to certain of these spots on foot in order to do some exploring. I’m still learning what’s what and where’s where here in Pittsburgh, so this practice has been somewhat revelatory.
Accordingly, I recently left the car back at HQ and took a cab over to the nearby South Side Slopes section of the city, where I got busy on what ended up being a pretty productive photowalk.
Pictured above is the ‘All Wars Memorial Garden.’ Can’t tell you much about it other than it was refurbished by the South Side Slopes neighborhood association in 2007.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is Pius Street, a typically (for this area) narrow local street which I often use to travel back to HQ rather than going through the heavily trafficked Liberty Tunnel. Everytime I’ve driven through this area, with its intriguing inventory of quite heterogenous housing stock set along a steep hill, and multitudes of ‘City Steps,’ I’ve said ‘gotta walk around here sometime.’
Welcome to sometime, lords and ladies.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As I would pronounce it in real life – “dem Catlicks used to have quite da operation here’s.”
You can take the boy out of Brooklyn…
Pictured above is the ruination of what I’m told is ‘St. Michael’s Mädchen Schule, and then South Side Catholic High School: West Building,’ which seems to be remembered for hosting an annual “Passion Play’ called ‘Veronica’s Veil.’ There’s an article on the building at abandonedonline.net which offers a brief history and interior shots.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s a pretty massive structure to have been just abandoned like this. Surprising that it hasn’t been rehabilitated and turned into housing, but the whole abandoned building thing in Pittsburgh generally surprises me. The Roman Catholic Church in this part of the country has massively contracted back onto itself, combining parishes and selling off properties.
Not a horizontal mile away, down on the south side flats, there’s an entire church for sale. Don’t think I haven’t fantasized about being able to afford the purchase, but you’d need sacks of money for that. Can you imagine?
How Goth… (get it? goths – sacks – sack of Rome – `Bwah hah hah).
My pathway led away from these former holdings of Rome, however, towards a set of those City Steps mentioned previously.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Pictured above is a section of the former Saint Michael’s Roman Catholic Church & Rectory, which is now known as ‘the Angels Arms Luxury Condominiums.’ See what I mean about the RC church selling off its abundance of land holdings hereabouts?
This is where my predecided path demanded a right hand turn, which then carried me in a downward direction as well.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
These are the ‘Church Route Trestle’ steps, which connect the slopes with the flats starting at the intersection of South 15th and Clinton Streets. They also just happen to offer a crossing over a very busy set of Norfolk Southern RR tracks called the Mon Line.
This had absolutely nothing to do with my chosen path, I assure you.
“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.
Never miss an opportunity
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A humble narrator has been obliging the wishes of his team of doctors in recent weeks, who have decreed that he submit to a now annual series of tests. These procedures are ingenious, including the use of high frequency sound waves and or queer radiations which are focused through my decaying flesh and the rot of my physical firmament.
The white coat and blue pants brigade have also been siphoning off the ichor in my veins, and sampling the various jellies and syrups found within the skinvelope, for chemical analysis. Nothing is particularly wrong with me other than the usual stuff, but these scholars seem to enjoy testing my patience as well as my fleshy bits.
My resolve is to ‘play ball with the docs,’ on a now annual basis. Back in NYC, I’d generally only seek medical attention when bleeding.
I’m making the best of all these violations of comfort and privacy, and since I’m in the habit of carrying a camera with me everywhere I go – took the opportunity after a recent ultrasound lookie-loo to crack out a few shots from the roof of Allegheny General Hospital’s parking lot roof.
Have to admit, I love the sound of the word ‘ultrasound.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The hospital where this particular procedure was inflicted is on the north side of Pittsburgh, so the perspective on this one is looking southwest towards the downtown section. It’s a ‘stitched panorama,’ meaning that I took about five photos while twisting at the waist, and ran them through a photoshop function to combine and blend them together into a panorama.
As a note: My neck was all sticky after the ultrasound, and its accompanying application of weird institutional jellies, and I felt pretty gross. Bleh!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I don’t know about you – lords and ladies – but one such as myself is silently screaming when submitting to the attentions of the physicians. Nightmare fuel, most of it.
A recent trial involved a multiple appointments series of Periodontal treatments at my Dentist. I’ve lived my life in a manner which is designed to avoid having power tools inserted into my mouth, but acquiescence to medical advice is a wise course of action and thereby I endured multiple hours of this particular torture. Good news is that my gums are now as pink as a baby’s bottom.
Did you know that most of the men who would eventually form the KGB’s torture squads, under the early rule of the Soviets, were Dentists?
“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 