Monthly Archives: June 2012

Albert Bridge

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The Albert Bridge, opened 1874, was my favorite London bridge.  Who came up with the idea to paint a bridge pink?  The color scheme looks perfect for a nursery and really bizarre for a bridge particularly one named after Prince Albert.  According to Wikipedia, this color scheme is rather new, the bridge having been painted pink, green, and blue in 1991 to increase the visibility of the bridge in foggy and other low visibility conditions.  This is one of those incidents where the facts are disappointing–I had been imagining all sorts of reasons for the color scheme, including that these three colors were Prince Albert’s favorite or that these colors were chosen specially to symbolize aspects of Prince Albert’s personality or accomplishments.

As this sign indicates, the Albert Bridge is not the most structurally sound and the force of troops marching in step could be enough to bring the bridge down.  Despite the structural deficiency of the bridge, it is one of the only bridges across the Thames in London to be still the original structure (more or less).  It has been renovated and reinforced on multiple occasions, but never demolished and rebuilt.

It seems possible to create a convincing argument for how the Albert Bridge symbolizes Prince Albert.  The bridge is unstable and the colors are not traditionally considered masculine.  Prince Albert was a man who struggled as the husband of Queen Victoria.  This marriage suffered from tensions between the idea that the man was the “head” and “ruler” of the family and the fact that in this case the woman was the head and ruler of an entire empire, so how could her husband be the head and ruler of her? (Particularly since he was German and the ruling British classes were very suspicious of and against any influence from the Germans.  “Victoria and Albert” (2001) is a good film about the love and tension in this marriage.)  Prince Albert had to deal with feeling less manly and powerful, at times, than he wished, while the bridge named after him is less strong and serious-looking than most other bridges.

Most of the buildings visible from the Albert Bridge were of new or modern construction and appeared to be used mostly for residential or office use.  One industrial site was visible to the west past the Battersea Bridge in the form of a factory near Chelsea Harbor.  There were also many boats parked in the Thames near the Albert Bridge; I don’t know if they were houseboats, fishing boats, or something else.

              

A Bridge under a Bridge

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This pedestrian bridge is located in downtown Pittsburgh.  As best as I can tell, this bridge was built in the early 1960s.  The upper bridge is called the Portal Bridge, carries one of the interstates over the Point, and does not have pedestrian access so I will not be walking it or posting about it.  The pedestrian bridge does not have its own name and is not included in PGHbridges.com’s list of bridges in Pittsburgh.  It crosses over a reflecting pool to connect the two parts of Point State Park which are divided by the highway.  It is the only access point from downtown to the park.

The Point hosted both British (Fort Pitt) and French (Fort Duquesne) forts early in its European history.  (The outlines of these forts are laid out on the grounds of the park.)  This area became a railroad and warehouse district before the first (we are apparently now on our third) “Pittsburgh Renaissance” in the 1930s/40s/50s at which time it was turned into a park with the interstate transecting it.

The view above is looking toward the pedestrian bridge and the park away from downtown.  This side of the bridge is a large, unexciting field.  During festivals and events there will often be tents and kiosks here.  On the other side of the bridge are the interesting parts of the park.  My favorite feature is the fountain, which unfortunately has been turned off and under reconstruction for the last three years.  According to a press release, the fountain will be back in working order next summer and better than ever.  Also found on the other side of the pedestrian bridge is the Fort Pitt Museum (which I believe I went to once and keep saying I should visit again), the steps along the Allegheny River used for watching boat races and the Three Rivers Regatta which will be held June 30-July 4 this year, and some tree-lined walks.

          

Battersea Bridge

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The Battersea Bridge was the first bridge in London that I walked across.  The bridge, built in 1890, connects the London neighborhoods of Kensington & Chelsea (north of the river) and Wandsworth (south of the river).  The north side had traditional, classic architecture, but the south side had some newer developments.  From the bridge looking west, I saw a bridge for the tube and several modern developments.  To the east, I saw the Albert Bridge, the Battersea Power Station, and the Shard tower then under construction.

I enjoyed this bridge.  I appreciated its simple, yet stately design.  The traffic was low, though this might have had more to do with the time of day (Sunday afternoon) than any other factor.  There were two sights near the bridge that particularly caught my attention.  The first was a statue of Sir Thomas More on the north side, with gilded face and hands, a style not familiar to me.  The second was a seemingly random statue of a flying goose just off the south end of the bridge.

The name of Battersea intrigued me, so I did a Google search to try and find the origin of the name.  The result was that there is no known origin.  The possibilities included an Anglo-Saxon term meaning Badric’s Island, battles that were fought in the river at low tide when the river was fordable, and an evolution of spellings from a term meaning St Peter’s water or river.

Three Sisters: 6th Street Bridge

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Originally, I thought I would write one post about the Three Sisters Bridges in Pittsburgh as they look identical and are so close together that their views of the city would not vary much.  However, after walking them, I decided that the 6th Street Bridge has enough going for it to deserve its own post.  (The other two Sisters are the 7th and 9th Street Bridges.)

The 6th Street Bridge is very active (much more so than its two sister bridges) and as such, I have walked over it multiple times.  It connects Downtown to the North Shore right next to PNC Park (the Pirates baseball stadium).  On game days the bridge is often closed to vehicular traffic, so that people who park, live, or work downtown as well as those who take public transit downtown can walk to the stadium across the bridge without crowding the sidewalks.  I believe this is true for baseball games as well as football games, both University of Pittsburgh and Steelers, down river at Heinz Stadium.  This bridge is also closed off to vehicles as part of the route for Pittsburgh’s annual Turkey Trot, which I participated in last year with several members of my family.

In my walk across the Three Sisters, I found additional reasons beyond the special closings of the bridge for writing about the 6th Street Bridge separately from the other two.

First, I discovered that the bridges are not completely identical.  In 1928, the 6th Street Bridge won the Most Beautiful Steel Bridge Award.  After crossing the Three Sisters, I agree that the 6th Street Bridge truly is the most beautiful (at least of the three).  This is because of the light fixtures.  The 7th and 9th Street Bridges have normal, ordinary street lights painted yellow, whereas the 6th Street Bridge has classic black posted street lamps (see image below).  Though all three had hanging flower baskets, the difference in the lamps made the flowers on the 6th Street Bridge look more vibrant and beautiful than those on the other two bridges.

The second reason for discussing the Three Sisters Bridges separately is because they each have alternate names.  The 6th Street Bridge is also called the Roberto Clemente Bridge.  The bridge was renamed in the late 1990s.  Roberto was a former Pirates player, who I remember learning about in elementary school as being an important force in combating racism in sports.  There is a plaque honoring Roberto on the bridge.

Another piece of interest about the 6th Street Bridge is that Kayak Pittsburgh is located underneath the bridge on the north side.  Ever since I moved to Pittsburgh, I’ve heard of Kayak Pittsburgh and its location, but I could never truly understand where it was.  The hut on the water near the bridge that I thought was Kayak Pittsburgh for years is actually the shed for river emergency services.  When I walked over the 6th Street Bridge this time, I approached it from the Three Rivers Trail on the north side, and finally saw Kayak Pittsburgh.  The last time and perhaps only time I was on that part of the trail was the middle of winter, so there weren’t any kayaks or kayakers to see.

      

London Bridges

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When I arrived in London this spring and saw the bridges over the river Thames, I decided I had to walk them all as I have the goal of walking all the bridges in Pittsburgh and this was my one opportunity for doing the same in London.  I did succeed in walking all thirteen of the pedestrian friendly bridges on my map of London in the few days I was there.  I believe there may be two more bridges to the west which I should have crossed in order to be able to say I walked all the Thames bridges in Inner London, but due to the bend in the river and the limitations of my map I did not know of their existence until coming home.  While walking the bridges I got a wide variety of views of London, some of which I would have missed otherwise, aided by London’s excellent river walkways.  Over the next few weeks, look for posts describing my experiences and observations of the thirteen Thames bridges: Battersea Bridge, Albert Bridge, Chelsea Bridge, Vauxhall Bridge, Lambeth Bridge, Westminster Bridge, Jubilee Bridge, Waterloo Bridge, Blackfriars Bridge, Millennium Bridge, Southwark Bridge, London Bridge, and Tower Bridge.

Highland Park Bridge

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The Highland Park Bridge, built 1938 (technical information can be found here), connects Pittsburgh’s Highland Park neighborhood to Route 28, Apsinwall, Sharpesburg, and the Waterworks Mall.  As a pedestrian this bridge is awkward at best.  There is sidewalk only on the western, down-stream side of the bridge, with a cement divider between the sidewalk and the road with the cars passing at around 45 mph and a metal, mesh fence keeping whoever’s using the sidewalk on the bridge.  The sidewalk is pretty narrow and is decorated with dirt and liter.  The best pedestrian approach to the bridge from the city side of the river starts at the intersection of Baker and Butler Streets.  It is a simple t-intersection with a light and a cross-walk on one side.  I believe it is technically possible to cross to the river side of Butler at One Wild Place, but the intersection there is far more complicated with no visible crosswalk and I doubt drivers even consider the possibility of pedestrians crossing at this point.

Once across Butler (from the intersection at Baker), turn right and cross Heth’s Run Bridge (see June 9 post for description of sidewalk conditions, see May 31 post for more info on this bridge).  As mentioned in the June 9 post on Heth’s Run Bridge, the sidewalk narrows considerably at this point and is broken and half covered in weeds and dirt.  For over 500 feet from the end of this bridge to the ramp for the Highland Park bridge there is no divider between the sidewalk and the street where cars tend to travel quickly.  On the ramp, the weeds go away and the cement divider starts.  At the other end of the bridge, there is a small gap in the divider for pedestrians to cross one of the on ramps for the bridge.  The view of on-coming traffic is often impeded by overgrown weeds/bushes.  Once across this lane, the sidewalk follows another on/off ramp of the bridge around 360 degrees to meet up with Freeport Road which passes underneath the bridge.  While this is the most pleasant part of the bridge as the area inside the circle is a well-maintained grassy spot, it feels a bit ridiculous as a pedestrian to walk around in such a wide circle.

I have walked this bridge several times now, in part because bus service between the East End (which includes Highland Park) and the Waterworks Mall was severely cut a few years ago.  A runner once passed me and bicyclists have passed me multiple times, however I have never encountered (or observed while driving across) any other pedestrians on the Highland Park Bridge.

There a couple of sights of interest from the bridge.  First is the lock.  Quite serendipitously the day I brought my camera to document my crossing of the Highland Park Bridge was the only time I’ve crossed when the lock was in use. The one thing I couldn’t figure out is how they would get the first barge out of the lock when the tug boat is on the higher level water with the second barge.

This is the second sight of interest is pictured above. If there was a place in Pittsburgh that would produce a comic book superhero, it would be here.  The hole in the picture above often gets filled with rainwater that stagnates and on some occasions turns an eerie, neon-like green color–the perfect toxic dump to produce superpowers.  I assume this site is some sort of scrap metal processing place.  A search on Google did not come up with any satisfactory responses.  One day when I walked past, a magnet was lifting up pieces and dropping them down repeatedly.  Whatever the site is, it is one of the reminders of Pittsburgh’s nitty-gritty industrial past.

                       

The upstream and downstream photos present a snapshot of what this part of the city looks like.  Downstream, the 62nd Street Bridge, aka R.D. Fleming Bridge, (see July 24 post) downtown Sharpsburg, Six Mile Island, and lots of trees are visible.  Upstream, trees, a railroad bridge, a dock for personal boats, and the roof of one of the waterworks processing buildings are visible.  Overall there is a very rural feeling six miles up the Allegheny from downtown.

Roald Dahl, Norwegians, Doctor Who, and a Church

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I watch the new Doctor Who series and the spin-off show Torchwood.  The Doctor Who episodes set in modern Cardiff are centered on Cardiff Bay and Torchwood is based in Cardiff Bay.  In the long shots of the area, I was most intrigued by the building pictured above.  I believed it must have been some sort of church.  When I was preparing to visit Cardiff, I was excited by the paragraph in my guidebook which referred to a repurposed church on Cardiff Bay.  I assumed that the building that intrigued me in Doctor Who and Torchwood must be the former Norwegian church now adapted to a rental facility.

On arriving at the site, I had a feeling that something was off.  It wasn’t until I stepped inside that I figured out what it was.  It turned out that this building never held a church.  I suppose that the lack of stained glass, the small widows, and the cannons outside should have been a clue, but with the peaked roof (not visible in the above photo), the gargoyles, and the central tower I didn’t know what else it could be besides a church.  The building is called the Pierhead and it guarded the port, or at least kept track of the traffic coming and going in the port.  It is open to visitors now as a museum of the port.  I learned a lot about the history of Cardiff from a short, entertaining film, such as the name came from Welsh for “Fort on the River Taff.”  The color and decoration of the interior also intrigued me.

             

When I left the Pierhead, I looked around the bay and quickly spotted the actual church described in the guidebook.  Norwegian sailors who passed through the port built this church (pictured below).  Roald Dahl was baptized here.  Now the building is used as a rental facility.  The sanctuary is the rental hall, when I was there it was being set up for a wedding reception on the following day; the choir loft level is now an art gallery; and the space below the choir loft, which I imagine would have been the entryway/gathering space, is now a coffee shop with some delicious pastries.  Unique features of this building included the model of a Norwegian sailing ship hanging from the center of the ceiling in the main room and a stained glass window that featured fish.  Unfortunately my camera temporary malfunctioned while I was visiting this building and as a result I do not have any shots of the interior.

Heth’s Run Bridge Part II

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I have a few thoughts to add about Heth’s Run Bridge.  First is the map above which identifies the location of the Bridge compared to downtown.  Second is the bridge’s condition.  There recently has been a lot of buzz around town about the terrible condition of all the bridges in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County as well as many in the rest of Pennsylvania.  This gossip tends to give the impression that most of our bridges are ready to collapse at any moment.  Transportation for America’s website describes a report on deficient bridges, which is probably what fueled the gossip above, however the report presents a slightly more favorable picture.  While the Pittsburgh Metro area is identified as the metro area with the highest percentage of deficient bridges in the US, it turns out that only 30% of the bridges are deficient.  While I am unable to comment on the structural integrity of Heth’s Run Bridge or even if there is any need for it to be structural sound (I don’t think the ravine has been completely filled in under the bridge, but I can’t be sure), I can attest to the condition of the sidewalks.

The sidewalk is quite wide, but as the image above shows, it is deteriorated with weeds growing however they please.  The sidewalk on the other side is in similar condition.  The first time I walked this bridge I could not understand why the sidewalk was so wide, particularly as on the other side, the sidewalk narrows considerably.  Across the bridge I’d guess the sidewalk is over 10 feet wide, but once across it is only a couple feet wide, with only about a foot of usable space due to dirt and overgrown weeds.  Clearly this is not an area that the city considers to have a high enough volume of foot traffic to warrant good sidewalk maintenance.  As there often is high vehicular traffic in this area, I say the city should make the sidewalks across the bridge much narrower so that they can add another car lane.  The riverside traffic has two lanes before the bridge and two lanes after, but narrows considerably to make room for a useless wide and deteriorating sidewalk.

In writing the first post on Heth’s Run Bridge (see May 31 post), I believe I discovered the reason for this unusually wide sidewalk that today essentially goes nowhere (at least nowhere that the average pedestrian would wish to go).  The 1911 map of the bridge and surrounding area shows that the bridge connected Butler Street and Washington Boulevard (today’s Allegheny River Blvd), both of which were lined with houses and other buildings.  There is even a school on Washington Boulevard.  As such it was probably only natural that when the current bridge was built in 1914 it would have large sidewalks to help facilitate the movement of people before the prevalence of the car between the houses, businesses, and schools that lined these roads.  Today all the buildings that lined Washington Boulevard at this point do not exist.  The land they once stood on is all wilderness and on the landward side of the road is incorporated into Highland Park.  The large, deteriorating sidewalk of Heth’s Run Bridge is the only reminder of a time when this area was probably busy and vibrant.

Newport Road, Cardiff

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The one mile walk from the city center to the Inkspot along Newport Road revealed more church buildings of interest for adaptive reuse and the history of the city. (Newport Road is so named as it was the main road from Cardiff northeast to Newport before the highway came along.)

The first building of interest that I came across was just off Newport Road. My observations indicated that this building was a former church probably adapted to a new use similar to the Wallich Centre (see post on Cathedral Road, Cardiff) but with a strong religious component. A sign on the building read “UCKG Help Centre,” which suggested that it provided help to those in need. My ideas for the possible targeted audience included people experiencing homelessness, depression, or low-income. I identified the Centre’s religious focus from a sandwich board in front of the entrance advertising holy/healing oil.

I was correct in my supposition that the building’s original use was a church (after I discovered I mistakenly identified two other buildings as former churches I began to doubt my guess with this building). It was built as a Unitarian Church in the 1880s. However, I was mistaken in the new use. It turns out that UCKG stands for the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God and therefore the building is still being used as a church, just not its original denomination.

The second building appeared permanently closed when I passed. This one clearly used to be a church.  The building appeared to be secure and in good condition, which is beneficial for any potential reuse.  This building was built as the Church of St James the Great in the 1890s and closed in 2006. A newspaper article from 2008 announces the redevelopment of the church’s spire into a seven-story flat (flat=apartment, please excuse my British vocab and spellings, such as centre, while I discuss British places).  The rest of the structure would be converted into 11 other one- and two-bedroom flats. However, there was no indication when I was passing that this has occurred or was in the process of occurring. There is no further mention of this redevelopment online, suggested it either fell through or is being held up.

I passed one more church building on Newport Road, one still used for religious worship, before reaching the Inkspot. This building interested me as it was a larger church complex than any of the others I passed, was a block away from the Inkspot, and part of a complex blocked off for construction work of some unknown sort.

Passing four church buildings, three of which were no longer housing their original uses, intrigued me. Coming from Pittsburgh, my immediate assumption was that Cardiff must have experienced a significant population loss. After all it used to be a major port—exporting more coal than probably any other port in the world. The port closed some time ago and Cardiff stopped exporting coal. I imagined this change resulted in the loss of many jobs and therefore a significant population loss followed. Yet, the population statistics for Cardiff over the last 200 years destroyed this theory. The population dipped slightly from 1971 to 1981, but by 1991 Cardiff had more residents than ever (see Cardiff Timeline for population statistics). The port closing may have influenced the dip in population, but net population loss cannot be the cause of the closed and adaptively reused religious buildings I observed in Cardiff.

I cannot verify my second theory for the reason these buildings lost their original uses. This theory is a change in the religious views of the population. This can go two ways. The first idea is that people are becoming less religious (this is how the Dutch explain their large number of churches adapted to new uses). I found a few articles that identify a similar trend in all of Britain (Number of Christians falls, Muslims pass on faith at higher rates than Christians). The second idea is that while the overall population is growing, people are still moving out and those that are moving in are of a different demographic or religion and therefore do not want the same religious institutions as those that came before them. Both theories are mostly speculation as I haven’t found detailed statistics on religious beliefs and practices in Cardiff, Wales, or Britain.

Cathedral Road, Cardiff

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As I mentioned in the post on Inkspot, it felt like I had more success with repurposed churches in Cardiff than London, despite having done extensive research on the adaptive reuse of churches in London.  Perhaps this is in part because it is far more exciting and rewarding to come upon a repurposed church than to go where you already know you will find one.  My first day in Cardiff I discovered two adapted religious buildings within a few blocks of each other—thrilling!

The first of these buildings, formerly the Cardiff New Synagogue now office space.  (I am also interested in the adaptive reuse of synagogues as there are some similar issues when repurposing synagogues or churches, but I am less familiar with the architecture and interior design of synagogues and they seem less common adapted church buildings.)  The façade of this former synagogue appeared to be unaltered, however in the back there was a modern office building extension.  I could not tell from my observations whether or not part of the original building was demolished to make way for the extension.  The original building seemed a bit short, which made me think that part of it might have been demolished.  However, some of the townhouses nearby had similar additions in the back as they were now used for businesses or apartment complexes.  The depth of these buildings matched those that did not have additions and that of the original structure of the synagogue, suggesting that the synagogue may have been intact.  I found the YouTube video on the building’s website interesting as it is easy to tell which rooms are in the original building and which in the addition.

The second building was a former Presbyterian Church of Wales, now The Wallich Centre.  Their motto is “homeless people first” which gave a clear indication of their purpose, although the website suggests that this building may not be used directly for the homeless as it is identified as the administrative centre as well as a venue for hire for meetings, conferences, etc. which I don’t imagine would be used by the homeless.  There appeared to be little or no alteration to the exterior of this building, except for the glass doors inside the covered entrance.  Only a small sign (blocked by the van in the picture) indicated that this building no longer functioned as a religious institution.