Posts Tagged ‘West Carson Street’
Terror Firma – Emerald View Trail 2
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Regular readers of the Newtown Pentacle may recall that a long suffering – but always humble – narrator was plying his course along the Emerald View Trail, which transits in a diagonal fashion across the face of Pittsburgh’s Mount Washington.
The landform itself is around 600 feet in elevation over the flood plains of the Monongahela River, and Mount Washington is found on the southern shore of the waterway.
Pictured is the West End Bridge, familiar to those regular readers of the mishegoss that’s on offer here five times a week, and the waters which it spans are where the admixture of the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers form into the headwaters of the Ohio River. All caught up.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The trail began to narrow towards its end, and my descent began.
As a rule, I like to walk downwards from high elevations, as I’m old and have to carefully ration my energies. The gas tank empties out a lot faster than it used to these days… and walking up a fifty to sixty story elevation on loose soil would be… well… that would be ‘no Bueno.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The trail spits you out onto a fairly steep roadway, right about here.
In typical Pittsburgh fashion, of course, the trail deposits pedestrians and bike riders onto the side of a de facto highway for a bit. Sigh.
Planning on coming back here in the autumn, incidentally. Should be a pretty sight, with all the color on the trees.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This isn’t the highway. It’s ‘Greenleaf Street,’ and it has no sidewalks.
Theoretically, I guess I should have been walking on the other side of the steel guard rail, but that ground was overgrown and teeming with Poison Ivy and other vines. Bad form, Pittsburgh, bad form.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Finally, a clearing – and coincidentally – I happened upon a pretty cool POV for the Norfolk Southern outfit’s locomotives. I’ll try and get back to this spot occasionally when I’m out wandering.
This is where things got hairy.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
No sidewalks below, none above either. Luckily, traffic was light on this particular day so I managed to rapidly scuttle down the side of that onramp pictured above, to a spot where pedestrian accoutrements on the public way were again on offer.
I hate this. I mean that I viscerally hate the fact that sidewalk pavement ends to make way for highway lanes, and then picks back up a half mile away. This situation has been encountered several times, and in the ‘center’ of Pittsburgh, not some distant hick town. Ok, I’m from NYC so to me Chicago is a distant hick town… but…
Again: No bueno.
This is precisely the sort of situation that makes me want to attend a governmental meeting and complain to the powers that be.
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.
Curvilinear footpaths
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There was an public event scheduled for the evening, at a sports ball stadium occupied by the Pittsburgh River Hounds soccer team, so there were scores of their fans gathered in the parking facilities of that institution. Many of them were tailgating, and the BBQ smelled pretty enticing as I exited the pedestrian/bike path of the Fort Pitt bridge onto the enigmatically named ‘West Carson Street.’ This is a wide and fairly high speed local arterial street, one which stitches several important bits of transit infrastructure together. The West End Bridge and a primary arterial road called Saw Mill Run Blvd. are to the west, the funicular inclines and Fort Pitt Bridge in the midst, and the T’s ‘Station Square’ light rail junction as well as the Liberty Bridge and tunnels are found along its length. After crossing under the T’s Panhandle Bridge approach ramps, this via publica becomes East Carson Street, which leads into what’s essentially a nightlife district. Lots of stuff along its path, many of which are interesting to one such as myself.
Ain’t exactly pedestrian friendly though, West Carson, and although I normally cross this interval on the parallel rail trail found along the waterfront, one figured on daring the sidewalk (or scare walk). Kind of a weird place to scuttle, I’d offer, but you never know how something tastes until you try a bite of it.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The goal for this scuttle, beyond scouting with the camera and learning the foot paths, was to get in some exercise. My goal for a longish walk like this one is to hit about 10,000 steps, which I did. I can actually walk 5-6 miles, which is more or less what those steps equate to, standing on my head. Lately, I’ve started incorporating the altitudinal side of Pittsburgh into the calculation, so my phone’s health app told me that I had also walked something like 12 flights of steps as well. Cardio, lords and ladies, cardio.
Saying that, I was fashvitzed by this point, and just wanted to get back to HQ for a shower. I negotiated my way back to the T station, at Station Square, and waited for my chariot to arrive.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Based on the frequent mentions offered about the service, you’ve probably guessed that I’m a fan. One of the factors which made Our Lady of the Pentacle and I choose Pittsburgh as a home base, and Dormont in particular, was the availability of mass transit. I like having the car available, mind you, but I also like leaving it at home and scuttling about on foot. I still haven’t taken a bus anywhere.
Back tomorrow with something I’d been looking forward to shooting for a couple of months.
“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 