More Steps

Here is a staircase. I *think* I took this in the South Side Slopes, but I can't remember *for sure*...

I mentioned a book about Pittsburgh steps before, and here are some quick facts from it:

Step by step
Some facts about Pittsburgh’s steps:

Number of staircases: 737

Total number of steps: 44,770

Total number of feet: 24,176, or about 4.5 miles

Number of staircases that are legal “paper” streets: 334

Number of staircases with more than 300 steps: 5

Number of staircases with fewer than 25 steps: 189

Number of wooden staircases: 80

Number of brick steps: 1

Neighborhoods with the most staircases: South Side, 70; Beechview, 39

Number of neighborhoods with no staircases: 24

Decades in which most staircases were built: 1940s, 204; 1950s, 137

Longest staircase no longer in existence: Indian Trail steps, more than 1,000 wooden steps up Mt. Washington from Carson Street to the intersection of Shaler Street and Grandview Avenue, Duquesne Heights

For more information about Pittsburgh’s steps, visit: www.saveoursteps.org

Source: Bob Regan, author of “The Steps of Pittsburgh: Portrait of a City”

City of Rivers : City of Bridges as City of Hills : City of Stairs

It started out innocently enough, a walk on a sunny day. But then I just kept going. First I tried one of the infamous staircases that climb the numerous hills throughout the city. From what I understand, a lot of them were built so the mill workers could walk to get to work, and some of them are more decrepit than others. This particular one was slightly overgrown with weeds, but seemed sturdy enough. This was in South Oakland on Dawson Street. It let out down near 2nd Avenue, from where I went on a dirt path under 376 and got onto the Eliza Furnace bike trail. I walked on that for a while, getting some odd looks from the bikers and skaters, and looking at graffitti until I got off it by the Greyhound station.
I took a breather at the greyhound station and was regretting not bringing along any water in this 90 degree weather. The sun was beating down and for some reason I had worn two shirts, so I slid my arms out of the outermost one to get more air. This probably only succeeded in letting out any coolness I was keeping in my body and soaking up more sun, but at least I didn't feel so constricted.

I decided to walk across the 10th Street Bridge from there to get a Gatorade at a gas station in the South Side. It was delicious.

Walking in Pittsburgh...

...usually involves stairs or hills. For some inexplicable reason, I decided to walk from the Dan Marino Baseball Field in South Oakland to the Eliza Furnace Trail access point off of 2nd Ave. Okay, there wasn't an actual decision process in there, it was more of I wandered there for no particular reason. I had it in my mind to walk to the river, but never quite made it there. I walked down a curvy hill on Swinburne, almost getting hit by cars 4.75 times, then accross the Swinburne bridge, down Greenfield Ave., under the bridge to 2nd ave, then up a bike trail to the Eliza Furnace trail. The way I went didn't seem particularly safe or expedient, due to the low visibility for cars to see me on the winding hills. ^^My path ^^

If I had actually planned to go where I went, I might have thought to use Google Transit for walking directions. This shouldn't surprise anyone who is from or has evern been to Pittsburgh, but there are apparently stairs that will take me there. Steps in Pittsburgh are as common as the saying "You can't get there from here" when giving directions in Pittsburgh. There has even been an entire book written about them! Here is how I should have gone (if I were, again, actually intending to go there), and some close ups of the steps from Google Transit.

looks like a more direct path too... Still, maybe next time I'll actually go to a river...