Posts Tagged ‘Smithfield Street Bridge’
Scuttlin along, peaceful and calm
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A friend from the ‘old neighborhood’ who was visiting with us had headed home to NYC the night before, and ‘exercise day’ reared its head again. A humble narrator crawled up the hills here in Dormont, where HQ is found, and boarded the Light Rail service which is known as ‘The T.’ I was headed into Downtown Pittsburgh.
Unlike NYC, which is flat, in Pittsburgh you need to have some sort of plan for a walk lest you find yourself walking up incredibly steep hills and then back down the other side into a valley where you inevitably hit another steep hill which needs climbing. There’s exercise day, and then again, there’s a forced march. I don’t do forced marches unless I have to. Hence ‘a plan.’ It started with the T Light Rail, pictured above.
The so called ‘Golden Triangle’ Downtown area of Pittsburgh is a river delta, so – sort of flat. That means I can wander about without a plan and see what wants to be seen. Always a wandering mendicant, I.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I debarked the T at the Station Square stop on the southern shoreline of the Monongahela River and scuttled across the Smithfield Street Bridge.
One wasn’t carrying a full kit, rather I had outfitted myself for a ‘photowalk’ and had zero intentions of getting artsy or fartsy with filters or tripods. The point of the effort involved kicking my feet about and burning off some calories while getting the ticker to tick at an elevated but not too elevated rate for a set period of time.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There is an absolutely surprising amount of port activity here in Pittsburgh. Lots of tugs. Supposedly, it’s possible to navigate to both the Great Lakes (Erie) and the Mississippi River from here. For reference, Pittsburgh is more or less 400 miles away and about 1,000 feet up from where you’ll notice the ocean.
Back tomorrow, as always.
“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.
Inclined towards the Mon
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My friend was in town, so how could she not take a ride on an incline when visiting Pittsburgh for the first time? Sheesh. I’m all goofy for funiculars, after all.
That’s the Monongahela River in the background, with the Station Square development in the middle, and the counterpart of the Incline car on the left was the one we were riding in to get down to the waterfront from the prominence of Mount Washington.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
We had purchased tickets for a Gateway Clipper boat tour, which offers the Pittsburgh equivalent of what you’d expect on NYC’s Circle Line. While waiting for the boat to leave the dock, I spotted this Tug towing a multitude of mineral barges down the Monongahela to its junction with the Allegheny where they combine and become the Ohio River.
Coal, it looked like.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Off in the distance, right at the junction point of the Ohio, another and far larger tow boat was at anchor. Given the presence of Lock and Dam facilities on both the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers, I’d imagine they were waiting on some chronological window at the USACE locks upstream to proceed to wherever their destination was.
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.
heading home
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After exploring a bit around the First Street Station on the T, in downtown Pittsburgh, one took a bit of a walk and decided on how my path back home via the light rail service would shape up. A brief scuttle soon found me perambulating across the Smithfield Street Bridge and crossing the Monongahela River towards the south side, as the locals would refer to it. Conversations with these locals will often result in a suggestion to check out a spot with a goofy name like “Deadman’s Hollow” or “Girty’s Run,” or some other fun nomenclature. I have to remind them that I’m still learning how to reliably drive back home at this stage of the game.
It was a lovely day in Pittsburgh, for early January, with air temperatures hovering in the high 40’s and low 50’s with calm winds.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Monongahela itself was carrying a significant amount of what appeared to be soil. This river flows, I’m told, out of West Virginia to the south and along its route it transits through first wild and then rural areas where its tributaries carry a not insignificant amount of solute into the river. The closer you get to Pittsburgh, the more industrialized and developed the banks of the river get, and the entire region of its transit in this part of Pennsylvania is referred to as “The Mon Valley.”
My plan for the remainder of the day was simple, but Pittsburgh didn’t comply with my wishes.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I spotted the T crossing the river on the nearby Panhandle Bridge, which was described in earlier posts this week, while walking across the Smithfield Street Bridge.
My plan, as it were, involved getting several loving shots of freight rail trains moving along the south shore of the river.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
None appeared, despite the absolutely fantastic framing that I was so proud of finding for the shot. When you’re going after trains, it’s a lot like fishing – sometimes they’re not biting no matter how patient you are.
C’est la vie, huh?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I did get a tugboat, however, so there’s that.
I’ve been seeing a bunch of these river tugs moving about, towing mineral barges of what looks like coal or coke.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While walking to the T stop on the south side at Station Square, I did get a train photo – a Norfolk Southern unit moving along an elevated trackway carved into Mount Washington. I’m working out how to get a bit closer to this track, somewhere where a better angle of view with something that “says Pittsburgh” in the shot. In NYC, as long as you have the Empire State Building somewhere in view – bam, that’s a NYC photo. Sense of place, and all that.
Back next week, with more from my initial attempts to explore Pittsburgh and its 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.
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