[PRCo] Mixed Bag Of Old Pittsburgh

[Dwight Long]

Fred

As I recall—perhaps imperfectly—the scenario for Union Station post WW II, it went like this:  first the trainshed came down.  Then the exterior was cleaned.  Around this time the curve off the Ft. Wayne bridge was eased (to let T1s start westbound trains without snappers!).  Last came the new trainsheds and the interior adjustments that accompanied them—the latter project was never completely finished.  I recall there was a very large model of the proposed final renovation result that resided in the main waiting room for years.  Finally after PRR realized they were never going to finish the job completely, it vanished—to where I am clueless.

A little story about the trainshed:  A few years back I was on a Bennett Levin trip which had some layover time in da Burgh.  We were parked at Union Station (or what remains of it) and I was chatting with the late Max Solomon, retired RVP of Conrail.  We started chatting about the decline of Union Station and I said I recalled when the giant train shed was taken down just after WW II.  “Oh yes,”  replied Max, “It was my father that cut it down!”  I wonder how many other Pgh. landmarks Max’s father’s firm leveled?

Dwight

From: Fred Schneider 
Sent: Friday, 28 June, 2013 12:23
To: Western PA Trolley discussion 
Subject: Re: [PRCo] Mixed Bag Of Old Pittsburgh


I guess my favorite view was the one which was titled downtown from the point in 1945.   I cannot argue with the date.    Why my favorite?  Because it reminds me of the city when I was a kid.   It also represents the city when it was at its peak.   It was still growing.  People came there for jobs instead of going to Dallas or Phoenix or Los Angeles.   But don't expect to breath.   :<)  

http://mailman.dementix.org/pipermail/pittsburgh-railways/attachments/20130628/e060b9f0/attachment-0003.jpg

Is the 1945 date correct?   I cannot argue with it.

The Wabash Pittsburgh Terminal was still there.   It burned March 6 and March 22, 1946.   Wikipedia claims two successive fires.  It still is intact in this picture.

I cannot find anything on line that dates Bigelow Blvd (originally Grant Blvd) by section.   Parts of it were as early as 1916.

The Gulf Building was 1930 and it's there.

The 10th Street Bridge was opened in 1933; it's there.

We also see in the center in the distance, the Inverted Mine Shaft (some call it Pitt's Cathedral of Learning) which is also early 1930s.  The stone work goes all the way to the top suggesting this might be as late as 1934 (the exterior was finished in October 1934).

But why is the 7th Street (Andy Warhol) Bridge almost invisible.   It was built in 1925-1926.   Had they repainted the 6th and 9th Street structures and not gotten around yet to doing the 7th Street bridge?   When you enlarge it, it looks as though the cables had all been removed leaving only the roadway.   Now this may sound impossible, but this is a self-anchoring suspension bridge.   The suspension cables pull not against anchors in the ground at the ends but against the girders along the side of the roadway.   Those girders had to be installed across the river first before the primary eye-bar suspension cables could be installed.  The girders are strong enough in compression to support anchor the suspension cables but not strong enough to hold up the roadway and traffic on it without the suspension cables.    I have e-mailed Bruce Cridebaugh, who runs the Pittsburgh Bridges and Tunnels web site, to see if he knows anything.

If someone here is older than me and has an intact memory and can recall when the Pennsylvania Railroad station had all the grime sandblasted off it, that also could be a clue.   I remember it being done which probably makes it after I was five years old (1945).   In this picture we see it is still filthy.   I also remember when they tore down the old train shed and erected individual roofs over each platform in the postwar era … but even enlarged, I cannot be 100% sure I am seeing the shed.   I think I see the rounded roof of the shed behind the division office building but I am not positive.

So the photo was dated 1945 but I think we can date it with some assurance to between 1934 and 1945.  But 








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