Pennsy Rotunda
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A beautiful bit of architecture, there’s a rotunda dome found at the entrance to what was once ‘Union (or Penn) Station’ here in Pittsburgh. This was once the home base station for the Pennsylvania Rail Road company, and they clearly wanted to make an impression – back in the day.
Completed in 1904, the station was designed by architect David Daniel Burnham, who was (amongst MANY other things) director of works for Chicago’s ‘White City’ World’s Colombian Exhibition in the 1890’s. He was also the designer of NYC’s Flatiron Building.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Converted to residential usage in the 1980’s – and I’m just going to colloquially use ‘Penn Station’ from this point out – the Penn Station terracotta dome, and rotunda entranceway to the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. It is a grandiose space, I’ll tell you.
Someday, I’ll have to connive a way to get into the building itself. Magnificent space outside, can only imagine what it’s like within – especially the lobby.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As you’ve probably guessed by now, I’m really digging the use of a wide angle 16mm lens, which was acquired at the beginning of the year. It’s just a little bit wider than human vision, and offers an almost panoramic point of view.
Back tomorrow with more from the Paris of Appalachia at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
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Hullabaloo, too
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was a ‘get some exercise day’ once again, and a humble narrator executed his now familiar trope of walking to the T light rail station and then heading towards the center of things here in Pittsburgh. There’s a fair amount of maintenance work being performed on the service and the transit people are rerouting the T’s through a largely shuttered facility downtown called ‘Penn Station,’ pictured above.
The drill is to debark the light rail unit you arrived in, cross a street, and then board a shuttle bus. Said bus carries you to two stops away, where you then debark the bus and head down into another light rail station to catch a T, which then travels to the terminal stop on the other side of the Allegheny River nearby the Sportsball stadiums.
The shuttle bus and the T make all the usual station stops along the way, as you’d imagine.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Penn Station sits alongside one of Pittsburgh’s ‘Busways,’ which are roadways whose occupancy is singularly restricted to mass transit, municipal, and emergency vehicles. Across the street is what used to be the actual ‘Penn, or Union, Station’ – as in the Pittsburgh HQ station of the Pennsylvania Rail Road company. This beautiful structure, clad in terracotta, has been converted over to luxury residential usage, unfortunately. There’s an Amtrak station alongside of it which now carries the passenger rail slack, but in the past I’ve described the station as looking like a Soviet orthodontist’s office and I’m sticking with that.
After my last long walk went down in flames due to dehydration and a sudden pall of infirmity, as detailed a couple of weeks ago, a humble narrator was determined to push the envelope a little bit on this one to explore the ideation that either it was a temporary thing or that there’s something wrong with me.
As it turned out, that episode seems to have been a one time thing. Yay.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Funnily enough, I felt absolutely top notch for the entirety of this walk, despite the fact that it was about three miles longer than the one which ended with me in bed at 9:30 p.m. feeling sick and old.
The weather was definitely on my side this time around – middle 70’s, with a fairly low dew point, and a steady breeze. The light was absolutely glorious on this particular afternoon, and instead of getting on that shuttle bus, one randomly decided to leave transit behind and get with the scuttling.
Back tomorrow with more.
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Open Streets PGH, too
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Pittsburgh’s Armstrong Tunnel, opened for inclusion in the ‘Open Streets PGH’ event, is pictured above. A 1927 vintage inclusion to Pittsburgh’s street grid, it’s named for a director of Public Works who would later serve his community as Pittsburgh’s Mayor, and then as Commissioner of Allegheny County at the start of the 20th century.
Who knew?
Our Lady of the Pentacle and myself retracted our umbrella’s canopies back into the ‘ready’ position and entered the underground. This open streets dealie is something organized by the local chapter of ‘the Bicycle People.’ I’m on record calling out the ‘bicycle people’ as being generally caustic and acting like total dicks, but I’m scarred from interaction with a particularly toxic group of them back in NYC’s Queens.
There was a cool vibe in the air, here in Pittsburgh, although the many Cops observed along the route didn’t look too happy. Saying that, do Cops ever look happy when they’re in uniform?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Marching through the tunnel was uneventful, except for when I stopped to grab a shot and some kid who wasn’t paying attention to his surroundings walked right into me, but that wasn’t a big deal at all as he was a tiny fellow.
There’s meant to be two more of these Open Streets events in 2024, and I’m hoping that I’ll be able to make it to them. Anytime you can walk in the street and not get squished by a car – I’m down.
The Armstrong Tunnel deposits visitors on a normally busy quite and somewhat high speed roadway, at an intersection leading to the South Tenth Street Bridge that connects to the South Side Flats neighborhood on the other side of the Monongahela River. The Downtown section we had just walked through is part of the peninsular ‘Golden Triangle’ section which sits between ‘The Mon,’ Ohio, and Allegheny Rivers.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the South Tenth street bridge, pictured above, which we proceeded upon. A quick couple’s scuttle soon found us enjoying a pint of beer at a local brewery, whereupon we indulged in a bit of laziness and summoned a cab to carry us back to HQ rather than using the light rail. It was pouring rain by this point in the day.
As a note – Breweries are a ‘thing’ here in Pittsburgh. There’s also a significant number of establishments which specialize in locally brewed Mead. Not my cup of tea, that – too sweet.
Upon our return, Moe the Dog rejoiced.
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Open Streets PGH
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A nonprofit outfit here in Pittsburgh, dubbed ‘Open Streets PGH,’ offers an event a few times a year wherein the normal ebb and flow of vehicular traffic through the city is halted, and a route is offered to the public for bike and pedestrian usage.
Our Lady of the Pentacle and myself decided to check out and participate in the event, which occurred on a particularly dreary and rain choked weekend day.
The particular route for this outing involved us getting to ‘Downtown,’ whereupon it snaked through the business district and over to the normally vehicle focused Armstrong Tunnel. This led us to a crossing of the Monongahela River over the South Tenth Street Bridge, which would put us in the South Side Flats ‘zone.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m still learning ‘what’s what,’ and ‘where’s where,’ but pictured above is Pittsburgh’s ‘Bridge of Sighs.’ One side of the street is the court house, whereas the other used to be a jail, and prisoners would be marched to their court dates along the corridor housed within that bridge over the street, hence the colloquial cognomen.
As you’ve likely noticed, one opted for use of a wide angle 16mm lens on this excursion. I was traveling light, partially because it was raining, and had my ‘bag of primes’ with me rather than any of the zoom lenses.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the Armstrong Tunnel, dug into a landform called ‘The Bluff,’ which Duquesne University sits atop. The tunnel leads to the northern shoreline of the Monongahela River, and it’s been undergoing rehabilitation related construction for pretty much the entire interval that I’ve been living in Pittsburgh.
Tomorrow, what it looks like within the tunnel, and on the other side.
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Dumberer, and Dumbtastic
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The long walk upon which I ran out of gas, described this week, ended with a cab ride over to a brewery nearby the light rail station which would carry me home. Said brewery is found alongside a fairly busy rail corridor operated by the CSX outfit. While relaxing my sore back and rehydrating with a pint of Pilsner, the signal arms at the grade crossing of the tracks activated, and I painfully stumbled over to get a shot of the passing train.
That’s when I saw one of the most dumbass things I’ve witnessed in the last couple of years occurred. Guys on dirt bikes ignoring the warning bells, the stop lights, and racing across the tracks in front of a moving train.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The trains don’t move terribly fast in this section for obvious reasons, but… Y’know, there’s a lot of ‘physics’ at work when you’re talking about locomotives. Getting hit by a slow moving train (15-20 mph) is somewhat related to getting shot by a fast moving bullet.
Had this kid miscalculated his crossing, hundreds of thousands of tons of mass would have been imparted to his bike and body. Parts of him would have become a red mist as he dismembered, and components of his bike would have gone airborne and landed dozens of feet from the point of impact. If the train operator had to hit the brakes to initiate a full stop, it would have taken the locomotive a good half mile to do so.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
You don’t screw around with trains, I always say. I used to say that about boats and ships in New York Harbor. It’s hard to conceive some of the titanic forces and physics surrounding such enormous machines, but as a reminder just keep saying to yourself ‘speed times mass.’ The reason a tiny bullet can pop a basketball size hole in you is ‘speed times mass,’ and the reason why a slow moving train can dismember you despite its relatively low traveling velocity is ‘speed times mass.’
Dumb, dumber, dumbest. This was some ‘Darwin Award’ shit right here.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The CSX unit was still blowing its horns as it passed through the grade crossing. One of the factors that the motorcyclist’s dumb move accomplished was introducing pure nightmare fuel for the operator of this locomotive. I’ve talked to NYC Subway personnel who experienced the hell of somebody jumping in front of a train they were operating, and have been told that it’s a life changing experience which never – ever – leaves you.
‘Eff you, motorcycle guy.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After getting the shot above, and finishing my pint of beer, a painful but short walk found me waiting for a T Light Rail car to shuttle me back to HQ. I was absolutely ‘out of gas,’ when I got home and prepared an evening meal. I wish I could say it was good, but I soon found myself in urgent physical distress, and didn’t finish it.
All I could think about was sleep, and found myself in bed by 9:30 p.m., a situation which Moe the Dog was highly in favor of. I was quite sore when I woke up the next morning, but had recovered from what was likely a heat and dehydration related physical crisis. Wow.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Lesson is: don’t ‘break the chain’ on regular exercise as it’s an absolute trial to get things started again. Also, I have to start carrying a water bottle with me during the summer. Also – yes, I was wearing a hat.
Back next week with something different at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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The Newtown Pentacle 