Posts Tagged ‘Smithfield Street Bridge’
Gyratorium iter
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Well, it looks like this and tomorrow’s posts will be the only ‘new’ stuff you’re going to see here for quite a while. The ankle injury which I mentioned last week has effectively crippled your humble narrator for the foreseeable future. I’m planning on republishing ‘classic Pentacle’ posts during the interval, so there’s that. I’ve been hospitalized and am recovering from orthopedic surgery, am back at home, and on bed rest as of this writing, but it’s going to be a long, long time before I get to take another walk. Helpless at the moment, me, and I’m writing this while sitting in a wheelchair.
Now… on with this penultimate ‘new’ posting.
My short walk on a pleasant summer evening carried me across Pittsburgh’s ‘Golden Triangle’ downtown area to the Smithfield Street Bridge over the Monongahela River. A weird combination of effort and importance is expressed in this bridge – the original version of it was designed by John Roebling (Brooklyn Bridge), and the modern version was designed by Gustav Lindenthal (Queensboro Bridge).
The river was crossed uneventfully, on one of the two shared bike/pedestrian paths offered by the thing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After crossing, one negotiated through a tunnel driven through the anchor of the Smithfield Street Bridge. That carried me into the South Side Flats area and pointed my feet at the Great Allegheny Passage rail trail, heading towards that brewery I’ve been haunting at the end of walks in this section of Pittsburgh. I should mention that the T light rail’s ‘Station Square’ hub is nearby, and the service offers me transit from here to a spot just few blocks away from HQ. Easy peasy.
I was hoping to see a few trains rolling by, and I wasn’t disappointed.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While walking to my eventual reward of a glass of Cream Ale, which I’m favoring at the moment, CSX #3300 hurtled past on the other side of a wooded fenceline. It wouldn’t be the last train I saw on this particular evening, but it’s the only one I’m showing you today.
Back tomorrow – at this – your limping along Newtown Pentacle.
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Ebrius est calor
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That abandoned structure pictured above, found in Pittsburgh’s ‘Uptown’ section, feels like it might be my spirit animal.
One was scuttling along on a dangerously warm afternoon, guzzling water from a flask that I now carry religiously. I had a bit of a trek ahead of me, but had downgraded the breadth of the route due to the fierce weather. A plan was hatched, and a new destination and path decided upon.
It still surprises me how many abandoned structures there are here – not just in Pittsburgh – but in the many communities that cluster around the city. After the steel industry pulled up stakes, the population collapsed.
Apparently, it’s quite a palaver to try and do anything with these properties – due to red tape, politics, etc.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One leaned into it, and soon found myself heading towards my new goal.
There’s a long stretch of fairly empty buildings and barren streetscapes to cross, between my spirit animal house nearby the Birmingham Bridge, and the downtown area. This is the very edge of the Downtown section, quite nearby the court houses and City Hall.
Some kid walked over to me, who appeared to be a creature of the streets, and scolded me for taking a photo which she thought she was in. ‘You have to ask permission to take somebody’s photo,’ she said. Rather than get into an argument with her, I just said that I didn’t take a photo of her, which I didn’t, and she sauntered away probably looking for someone else to annoy and boss around.
Lots of ad hoc constitutional scholars out there, these days.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My short term goal is pictured above, the Smithfield Street Bridge over the Monongahela River. Given the atmospheric conditions, I decided that my best course of action would be to find some shady but photogenic spot where I might spy some passing Railroad action.
That brewery I like on the other side of the river, thereby, became my next walking target.
More 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.
Trolling on the Ides
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Whenever I’m under a bridge, one can’t help but go all Brooklyn in my thoughts – “Hey Ma, check me out, I’m a troll hanging out under da bridge.” The one pictured above is the Fort Pitt Bridge in Pittsburgh, spanning the Monongahela River. It’s a pretty city, I tell’s ya.
There’s a few weird cultural things here in Pittsburgh which I still haven’t gotten used to. This area was a frontline during the French and Indian War, and thereby there’s a bunch of town names which have French origins. Thing is – they pronounce “Versailles” as ‘Ver Sales,’ and “Dubois” as ‘Du Boys’ here in Western PA – which causes me headaches, and inflammation.
The Brooklyn way is to purposely mispronounce ‘fancy pants’ words and speak them as they’re spelled – hence ‘Whores Du Vores’ for ‘Hors D’oeuvres’ or ‘Antikways’ for ‘Antiques’ – but the locals aren’t being snarky like all Brooklyn people are obliged to be, and the Yinzers literally say ‘Ver Sales’ for ‘Versailles.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This was a short walk, as stated in Monday’s post, one which took place on a fairly cold and windy day. I was quite pleased to reach the final leg thereby, which carried me over to the Light Rail station for a ride back to HQ. The Three Rivers Heritage Trail was exited at Smithfield Street, where I found this charming arrangement of cautionary signage that had been tumbled about by the turbulent atmospherics.
I’m really trying to lean into my exercise schedule of ‘one day out, one day in,’ at the moment. Winter, although it was a fairly mild one, is not my favorite time of year. Luckily, the camera is hungry for sights to see and I have to oblige the thing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It didn’t take long for my chariot to arrive, which carried my bloated pre-corpse back to HQ. Embarrassingly, just as I was about to sit down on the train, the T light car I was in lurched forward, which caused me to stumble and fall. Everybody onboard was concerned about the old fellow with the gray beard who just fell down.
I was worried about the camera. It was fine.
Back next week with more from the Paris of Appalachia 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.
Meditative
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Ultimately, I’m quite pleased with the 16mm wide angle lens that was recently added to my kit bag, but it has limitations that can be frustrating. I like leaving my zoom lenses at home sometimes, and using prime lenses with fixed focal lengths instead. After cracking this shot out I changed up the gear, affixing an 85mm lens to the camera instead, which is the opposite of the 16mm in most ways and not just magnification.
The hole in my arsenal is telephoto at this point. Rumor has it that Canon is finally going to let third party manufacturers into their RF mirrorless mount ecosystem, notably Sigma. What I’ve been desirous of with this camera system has been a counterpart of the old ‘all in one’ Sigma zoom I used to attach to my old crop sensor ‘7D’ model camera. I sometimes adapt that old warhorse onto the newer ‘R6’ camera I currently carry, but I’m throwing away a third of the image by doing so and it negates the point and advantages of the ‘full frame’ image sensor within the gizmo.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Also – I’ve been a fan of this F2 85mm lens since acquiring it towards the end of the pandemic, I’d mention, but I’d love to be able to ‘reach out and touch someone’ with a 300mm or greater zoom occasionally. The legacy Sigma lens I like is an 18-300 ‘all in one,’ if you’re curious.
My path back to HQ on this walk included having to cross Pittsburgh’s Monongahela River, so I headed over to the Smithfield Street Bridge (pictured above) to do just that.
As opposed to the 16mm with its typical ‘fish eye’ style distortion, the 85mm is pretty true and ‘square’ to the eye, and it needs little in the way of lens correction during the developing process – unlike the 16mm.
Truth be told, I don’t ‘need’ a long view 99% of the time and my preferred method for rectifying that sort of thing is to just find a better point of view that’s closer to the subject. Saying that, sometimes you can’t get a better angle from closer up, or something is happening and you’re nowhere near it. Train coming into frame, tugboat, wild boar? Seconds, that’s what you’ve got to work with, and that all in one lens is perfect for such situations.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Saying that, there’s a whole decision process that I force myself to have when I’m packing up my bag before leaving HQ. First question is the circumstance of light – what time is sunset/sunrise? Weather? Inside or outside or both? Am I bringing a tripod? Plan on doing filter shots? What’s my route and what do I expect to see? Lots of times, the answer is to just bring the heavy zoom lens, and switch out for a wide aperture prime when it gets dark. Saying that – All of this stuff gets pretty heavy on a long walk, so is there anything I can leave back at HQ?
Staying organized with all the gear is a real challenge, I’d add. Lens caps go in a certain pocket, as do gloves, and a tissue to blow my nose, there’s a small cotton towel I always carry in case it rains, there’s the phone, all of it needs to be kept track of. Every pocket has a designated purpose, and I’ve made religious obeyance of this a habit.
Nothing worse than the sudden realization that you’ve stupidly lost something along your way. At least to me.
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.
Existential scuttling
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Those old Christmas season cartoons – the stop motion animation ones from Rankin Bass – they had one heck of a sound track, if you ask me. The Heat/Cold Miser song, in particular, as well as the one from Santa’s origin story which bucked up the Winter Warlock’s mood by suggesting that if you ‘put one foot in front of the other, soon you’ll be walking out the door,’ are tunes that always seem to always actively dwell in my mind.
So does The Who’s ‘Don’t get fooled again’ but that ditty exists in a different mental folder.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned in prior posts, the particular scuttle during which these shots were gathered wasn’t aimed at any one spot. I was straight up wandering, with intent revolving around getting from one T streetcar station on the north side of the Allegheny River to another one on the south side of the Monongahela River, via the peninsular ‘Downtown’ section of the Pittsburgh. Exploring, essentially.
I will admit to becoming somewhat intrigued by the flatiron shaped brick building pictured above, with its ornate lintels and terracotta decoration. I’m going to have to look into that one at some point.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Pittsburgh’s Smithfield Street Bridge, over the Monongahela River, is fascinating to this NYC transplant. Well… beyond being how I got from one side of the river to the other, where the T station is.
The piers and masonry of the bridge were designed by none other than John Roebling (Brooklyn Bridge), and the steel upper section of the bridge was created by Gustav Lindenthal (Queensboro Bridge).
…put one foot in front of the other…
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 