Posts Tagged ‘West End Bridge’
A gray day
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was exercise day again, so the now familiar ritual of walking to and riding the T streetcar, from HQ to the metropolitan center of Pittsburgh, was enacted. I’ve been using my headphones again on these walks, after a quite long interval of not doing so, and one was listening to an audiobook.
This time around one was listening to a ‘various hands’ reading of the text of Nietzsche’s ‘Beyond Good and Evil,’ with different narrators reading the various chapters, a file I had long ago downloaded from the LibriVox outfit. It’s a series of awful readings actually, of a book written by an awful man and the audiobook uses a not so great translation as its source. The audiobook has a series of what sounds like 19 year old American college students do the readings. Seriously, if you want to produce something like this, find somebody who sounds like Werner Herzog or Brother Theodore to do the narration. It’s Nietzsche, after all.
Thus spake Waxathustra, while watching as a village fool, walking on a tightrope of aspirant desire, took that first step in order to delight the sheep below.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I switched over to a different audiobook, and proceeded to scuttle towards Pittsburgh’s West End Bridge, spanning the Ohio River. The T had dropped me on the North Shore of the Allegheny River, nearby the sports ball stadium utilized by the Pittsburgh Steelers to thrill the community, and at the streetcar service’s terminal stop not too far from the aforementioned West End Bridge.
The new audiobook I had keyed in was Nellie Bly’s ‘Ten Days in a Mad-House.’ The text triggered a vast set of reminiscences for me, about Roosevelt Island and the Queensboro Bridge. This narration was read by a woman who sounded quite young, and quite apropo for the voice of Nellie, who was the inspiration for Lois Lane.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After crossing the Ohio River, one encountered the outfall canal of its tributary ‘Chartiers Creek,’ a waterway which was mentioned in a post about a recent visit to the community of Carnegie for a short walk, not so long ago. This day’s endeavor, however, was one of my ‘long walks’ and there were a few things which I planned on getting a look at along the way, which included the outfall pictured above.
Ten Days in a Mad-House, if you’re not familiar, revolves around a 19th century Reporter Nellie Bly getting herself committed to New York’s Welfare Island (today’s Roosevelt Island) asylum, as part of an undercover assignment for the New York World newspaper. If you want to check out the free audiobook – here you go.
Later in her career, Bly would ‘go around the world in 72 days,’ write a novel, and then married a 73 year old millionaire when she was 31. After her husband’s death in 1904, Bly became an industrialist running his steel can and container manufacturing business. Nellie Bly was a pen name, she was actually named Elizabeth Cochran.
More tomorrow.
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Hi-oh, Ohio
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Scuttling along on the West End Bridge in Pittsburgh with a wide angle 16mm lens on the camera, over the mouth of the Ohio River (which is formed by the confluent mating of the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers below), and a humble narrator had finally at the preordained spot where a lens swap would occur and the other new lens – the RF 50mm f1.8 – was attached to the camera.
I was really running the new glass through its paces on this scuttle, using the camera’s different autofocus mechanisms (zone, spot, tracking etc.) and photographic formulae. The aperture was also being dialed up and down between shots, as I was searching for what would end up being the ‘sweet spot’ settings for the two new lenses. As a note, I seldom do this sort of ‘round the world’ kind of shooting. Normally, I use a tried and true formula based on atmospheric and lighting conditions.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The 50mm’s sweet spot seems to be either f2.8 & f4. The optical formula underlying the so called ‘Nifty Fifty’ has always been somewhat persnickety in my experience. Sometimes it hits perfectly, other times it’s inexplicably ‘off.’ That’s why you take multiple exposures, though.
A storm was brewing, and later on in the evening a drizzling rain started up. At this particular moment, however, it was merely overcast.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Norfolk Southern was moving a train set along one of their elevated tracks, with the thing heading eastwards. I had seen it coming down the river when I was still a hundred yards from this spot, and decided to use the opportunity to activate the camera’s ‘follow focus’ autofocus settings, which were also set for ‘vehicle’ tracking. The lens performed well, locking in on the desired subject amongst a polyglot of other distractions.
Back tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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“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.
Scuttling wide
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Testing out a couple of newly acquired lenses, a humble narrator debarked Pittsburgh’s ‘T’ light rail service at its terminal stop, which is dubbed as ‘Allegheny.’ Allegheny is across the street from the sports ball stadium on Pittsburgh’s North Side, where the Pittsburgh Steelers do their thing. I had walked and described this path in detail last week – here, and here. A pretty decent scuttle this is, I would mention, one which is about 5 miles long and involves negotiating several flights of stairs, while offering interesting scenery that’s quite ’photogenic.’
At the start of the endeavor, I had outfitted the camera with an extremely wide angle prime lens of 16mm which offers something like 140 degrees of view. There’s a decent amount of distortion inherent to this kind of ‘fish eye’ dealie, although a true fisheye would be more like 8mm. I was trying to ‘get to know’ the thing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One of the things I learned on this walk is that the focal point for the lens needs to be in the dead bang center of the frame, or you’re going to get a significant amount of optical fisheye distortion. Look at the way that the truck in lower right leans into the shot above, for instance. This is after the photoshop lens profile is applied, which somewhat ameliorates these distortions, I would add. There’s a way around this sort of thing, with a different kind of wide angle lens that’s called a ‘tilt shift,’ but there you are.
A humble narrator was heading towards the West End Bridge pictured at the center of the shot, which is described in one of the posts linked to above. It was overcast and cool out, but I was sweating a bit as I was really leaning into the walk and moving somewhat rapidly. According to my phone’s health app, this part of the walk was 12,162 steps long, which translates down to about six miles. The trick to it being ‘good cardio,’ according to my team of Doctors, revolves around getting the pulse rate up to a certain level, and then steadily maintaining that pace over an extended interval of time.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I had two new lenses which I was trying out on this walk, the 16mm and a 50mm. I kept on beating down the urge to swap the 50mm onto the camera until I reached the southern shore of the Ohio River which is spanned by the West End Bridge. Along the way, I narrowed and then opened the aperture, shot from the waist and from above my head. I overexposed and under exposed, pointing the thing ‘up, down, all around.’ As mentioned – getting to know it, trying to find what the thing couldn’t do, and how and why it would fail.
More tomorrow, at this, your Newtown Pentacle.
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“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.
Them’s boats on that river
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
West End Bridge’s pedestrian pathway here in Pittsburgh had pulled my attentions upon itself, and mainly so for several exciting points of view which are found on its south eastern terminus. The bridge’s history was summarized in a prior post, here at Newtown Pentacle. A humble narrator plans on returning here, in the early morning hours, sometime soon for a sunrise session.
Additionally, one encountered a set of ‘Bernie Holes’ cut into the fencing where the bridge overflies the CSX Pittsburgh subdivision tracks. Nothing like a Bernie hole.
For those of you who haven’t been with me from the start, my dearly departed friend Bernard Ente was a devotee of the railroad world, and my mentor at the start of the whole Newtown Creek thing. Bernie would cut fence holes just big enough to stick a lens through at several photogenic spots along Newtown Creek, and all over Western Queens, to facilitate his art. Those of us who were fortunate enough to be in his circle refer to these artifacts of his time with us as ‘Bernie Holes.’ I doubt these are his, of course, but i call them ‘Bernie Holes’ nevertheless.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Bernie also introduced me to the NY Harbor community, where I was infected by a real appreciation of tugboats and the importance of the towing industry. A Towing outfit, here in Pittsburgh, is based out of a spot nearby the West End Bridge. Observationally, they mainly move fuel and mineral barges. There’s another set of these docks further east on the Monongahela River, nearby the Edgar Thomson steel mill.
Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any mechanism here for interaction between the tug or tow boats and the freight rail which is commonly witnessed as crossing through the city. Personally, I also find it odd that there isn’t a ferry system in Pittsburgh given the dense population centers stacked up on the shorelines of the 3 rivers.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After leaving the West End Bridge, one continued along the Monongahela shoreline and the river ‘rail to trail’ pathway. It’s actually a bit scary, getting from ‘A’ to ‘B,’ but I’m not the timid type and would often scuttle along roadways in NYC that were far more dangerous for pedestrians. You ever walk the Astoria Boulevard fenceline of St. Michael’s Cemetery between 49th & 77th streets? Brrr.
That’s the Fort Pitt bridge which that boat is navigating under.
Back tomorrow with something different, at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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“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.
West End Bridge, over the Ohio River
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s a steel tied arch bridge near the center of Pittsburgh, one which spans the very mouth of the Ohio River (formed up by the convergence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers), and it’s called the West End Bridge. West End Bridge’s construction was declared as accomplished in 1932, and the thing was built by Pittsburgh’s own American Bridge Company (steel and span) and the Foundation Company (foundation and masonry piers). West End Bridge was originally just under 2,000 feet long.
After a sprucing up and redesign in the 1990’s, which saw the addition of pedestrian and bike lanes, as well as the removal of several vehicle approach ramps on its northern side, the West End Bridge was and is 1,310 feet long.
There’s 66 feet of clearance over the water, it’s 58 feet wide in totality, and the bridge carries 4 lanes of traffic through a 40 foot space. West End Bridge is a challenging and unforgiving span to drive over, I would mention, given how narrow the travel lanes are. There’s scrapes and automotive paint residue all over the lane facing concrete superstructure of the thing, as it’s really easy to screw up and misjudge where your car is in relation to the structure when driving over it.
Additionally, like many of Pittsburgh’s bridges, you need to be in the correct lane when entering the crossing in order to access the local streets or highway interchanges on the exit side, something which you’re just supposed to know intuitively. Pittsburgh is all about ‘vernacular.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
West End Bridge connects the ‘South Hills’ communities to Pittsburgh’s quite urban North Side areas in the annexed ‘Allegheny City’ area, bypassing the congested triangular downtown area.
When exiting the bridge on the south side, you can continue southeast onto an arterial road called Saw Mill Run Blvd., which leads out into the suburban sprawl of the South Hills, or make turns either east or west to access the local streets along the Monongahela and Ohio rivers.
On the northern side of West End Bridge, one lane leads into Pittsburgh’s North Side areas, specifically the ‘Chateau’ neighborhood, and the Mexican War Streets zone. There’s also an interchange on the north side which offers access to local and state highways which ultimately connect to the interstate roads that snake along the Ohio River, or head easterly towards a different set of suburbs after moving through the City. It’s all quite complicated.
Pictured is the pedestrian path, which was actually offered quite an interesting walk. I was the sole occupant on this pathway, which sort of describes my entire existence when you get down to it.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My interest in the thing had become piqued during the many back and forth trips to the Allegheny General Hospital, on the North Side, for Our Lady of the Pentacle’s medical procedures. It provides an interesting point of view for several ‘hard to reach’ – on foot – parts of Pittsburgh. There are other ‘primary’ crossings which receive far more traffic that accomplish the same function – the Fort Pitt and Fort Duquesne bridges – but there you are.
For an ‘eye in the sky’ overview of what West End Bridge looks like, and its relationship to the larger city it serves, check out any of the posts offered here from the West End Overlook Park.
Back tomorrow with more.
“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 