65: South Shore, The Bluff, Crawford-Roberts, SS Flats

Unique Streets: 39

Miles Walked: 6.6

Street Names (italicized have been walked on another day): Commerce Drive, W. Station Square Drive, Station Square, Smithfield Street Bridge, Smithfield Street , Fort Pitt Boulevard, Grant Street, 1st Avenue, 2nd Avenue, Ross Street, B Street*, Try Street, Gasoline Street, Municipal Courts Drive, Armstrong Tunnel, Forbes Avenue, Boyd Street, Locust Street, McAnulty Drive, Trinity Circle, Bluff Street, Stevenson Street, Vickroy Street, Magee Street, Upper Magee Street, Seitz Street, Chatham Square, Watson Street, Diamond Street, 5th Avenue, Our Way, Logan Street, Pride Street, Colwell Street, Vine Street, Marion Street, Tustin Street, Van Braam Street, Edna Street, Miltenberger Street, Boulevard of the Allies, 10th Street Bridge, Bingham Street, S. 9th Street, Cabot Way, E. Carson Street, S. 8th Street, S. 7th Street, S. 6th Street, S. 5th Street, S. 4th Street, McKean Street, Terminal Way, S. 3rd Street, S. 2nd Street, S. 1st Street, E. Station Square Drive, W. Carson Street, Wabash Tunnel

The Bluff is an area of Pittsburgh I’ve been looking forward to exploring since I started this project. The Bluff aka Uptown has been known by many other names over the years: Soho, Boyd’s Hill, and Ayer’s Hill. The area is now home to Duquesne University, Mercy Hospital, and the Allegheny County Jail.

I knew that parking in the area might be tough (I didn’t realize it would have been that much more difficult since Duquesne’s commencement was happening at PPG Paints Arena) so I parked at Station Square.

The Smithfield Street Bridge provided easy access to Downtown.

I could see the Tiki Bar Boats from the pedestrian walkway on the bridge.

I saw my 7th Pittsburgh Protractor!

I walked in downtown for a bit to find a way to the Bluff.

I walked some of the small strange streets that lie underneath the Liberty Bridge and found a second B Street*. I walked on a B Street in California-Kirkbride and the two are perpendicular. They are also separated by a river.

I made my way up onto Second Avenue and walked near the Allegheny County Jail.

It started to rain a bit so I was happy to find myself entering the Armstrong Tunnel/Ben Roethlisberger Tunnel.

The tunnel was unnerving to say the least. The end near Forbes curved in a way that you could not see what was coming but you could definitely hear its deafening roar. The walkway was narrow and twice I had to squeeze up against the barrier to let runners and a bike rider pass me. I looked for a while through the access doorway that led to the other side. As a kid riding through tunnels, I would always try to look through them and see passing cars.

Out of the scary tunnel and into the drizzle, I walked up the steep incline leading into Duquesne’s campus.

On Bluff Street, the views of the Mon and South Side were commanding in spite of the jailhouse.

I saw more marks from a past Pittsburgh Hash House Harriers trail.

The drizzle was getting heavier and I figured the DU bookstore might have umbrellas. I made my way back down to Forbes and saw many students in cap and gown.

This area of Pittsburgh is a strange combination of parking lots, homeless shelters, storefronts (old and new, open and closed), and rowhouses.

I walked down Pride Street and smelled smoking meats outside of Z-Best BBQ.

Walking towards the Mon River I found this eccentric market.

Inside, the shelves were neatly arranged and fill with foodstuffs and also more out-of-place (for an Italian food market, anyways) items for sale.

I walked towards the Boulevard of the Allies and saw murals, the old Tamburitzan’s HQ, and a building with the Paramount Pictures emblem on it.

I did some research and the Paramount Building is the Paramount Film Exchange and the Tamburitzan’s building used to be the Warner Bros. Film Exchange.

After this block I was forced to go back north to Locust Street because of a construction site for a new eye care hospital and research center. I spied with my little eye (heh) a solar-powered spinning gadget at the edge of the site. I asked a nearby construction worker what it was and he said it was GPS for the digging that the earth-movers were doing. COOL!

In the above picture on the right, you can see huge oxygen tanks. All around Mercy’s current campus, there are signs notifying the public that an oxygen line runs underneath the ground.

Up close, you could see frost on the outside of the tanks.

I made my way back up towards Duquesne because I’d seen a neat pedestrian bridge over the Boulevard of the Allies that would take me back down to the Armstrong Tunnel and the 10th Street Bridge.

It was pretty high up and I had a momentary attack of Acrophobia.

The steps started out as metal, turned into cement, and then finally devolved into slippy pieces of wood.

Back near the tunnel. I crossed to the bridge.

Entering the South Side, I noticed that the metal roof of Allegheny Millworks & Lumber seemed like an appropriate place to throw orphaned shoes.

I made a right at the Oliver Bath House so I could hit the rest of the numbered streets in the South Side Flats.

St. John the Baptist Ukranian Catholic Church advertised that they have Pyrohi for sale THURSDAYS ONLY. Poo, I missed it.

I walked under and then on the Terminal Building. Now home to various offices, the building is unique. From Carson Street it appears to be two identical buildings but from McKean you can see that it is actually connected on the ground floor. The Hopkins Maps in 1923 show that it was owned by the Pittsburgh Terminal Warehouse and Transfer Company.

Back into the South Shore and I walked around the huge construction site where Rod Woodson’s All Star Grille, Matrix Nightclub, and other various nightspots used to be. I’m aging myself. Now, condos or a hotel are going in.

I walked around the fountains in Station Square (also under construction) and had lunch at HomeTown Harry’s. It was dark, smoky, and perfect.

After lunch, I knocked one more “street” off my list. It turns out you can walk up the ramp to the Wabash Tunnel. Check!

Relive ‘5/10/19’

Check out all of the photos I took on Facebook or Google Photos.