Old Photo Challenge #4 (Pittsburgh, Madison, Atlantic: neighborhood, rating, areas)

[ossewa]

Here is an excellent photographic composition of Pittsburgh. As you can see, the weather has been pretty consistent from the '40's to today...

So, where was the photo taken?

[FreightTrainRunning]

There's a good discussion of that picture on Shorpy's. It's taken from Madison st. on the Northside, from a vantage point that doesn't exist anymore since it's in the middle of 279. You can see The Priory in the background.

[ossewa]

Yeah, I won that competition months ago and recycled it. I thought the three photo puzzles I had would have been more challenging for people but there is a lot of skill around here. Shorpy is my favorite website. I asked the guy who runs it to post more riverfront images of Pittsburgh and he has dug up some amazing photos.

[chielgirl]

Great challenges and link to Shorpy.

[FreightTrainRunning]

Oh, sorry. I guess that I was cheating by using the info that I knew from Shorpy's. I didn't realize that you had gotten the picture from there.

[Caladium]

These are fun! Love the photo of the downpour, especially. He really caught the feel of rain--and the irony of feeling as wet as the ocean on a street named Atlantic.

[raubre]

I love old pictures. Of course I would have never guessed where it is (not familiar with that part of the North Side.) Where is Madison St.? (Neighborhood)

[FreightTrainRunning]

Madison Ave (not street, my mistake) runs parallel to 279 in East Allegheny (Deutchtown) but nothing in that picture is left standing except for the Priory. Where the camera person was standing would be right in the middle of the highway right now.

[ferraris]

It's really frustrating to see a picture like this, showing how well connected East Allegheny used to be. It's sad that the front page of the North Side Chronicle right now is an article about beautifying the bridges over the highways to help connect the two halves of the neighborhood.

[Geeo]

I think the building of the 279 was the last time that a neighborhood would be destroyed for a highway project. Fortunately, there are no plans for any more of these things to be built, (the Mon Valley highway will bever be built), and stronger neighborhood organizations would never allow it now.

I think Pittsburgh got off relatively easy during the freeway building frenzy of the 50s, 60s and 70s. We're not all carved up with desolate areas cut off by highways like Cleveland and a lot of other cities.