Pennsylvania – Geeky Girl Engineer

Harrisburg

Posted on July 29, 2019 by geek

I came to Harrisburg to see the Pennsylvania State Capitol, but while I am here, I spent some time exploring. Harrisburg is one of those old cities where downtown is a mix of historic and modern buildings. Some of the historic buildings have been preserved; some need some preservation. It is a mostly walkable city though. There is a nice riverwalk, at least part of it is close to the water level next to the levee, and another parallel part of it is on top the levee.

One place that I really enjoyed walking to is City Island, which can be accessed on foot by the Walnut Street Bridge, a pedestrian and bicycle only bridge, that connects downtown to the island in the Susquehanna River. From City Island, I took a ride on the Pride of the Susquehanna riverboat that takes a short cruise up the river. By the time the river gets to Harrisburg, it is about a mile wide, but it averages only about 3.5 feet deep. On the cruise, I saw some people standing in the middle of the river, which only went to their waist, next to their pontoon boat.

View of the state capitol and downtown from City Island

Market Street Bridge with more southern bridges in the background

McCormick Riverfront Library, Founded in 1889 as The Harrisburg Public Library, now part of the Dauphin County Library System

Storm approaching the Susquehanna River from the west

Churches line State Street, a block from the Capitol

Susquehanna River with numerous bridges to the left, the first one is the Walnut Street Bridge

Pennsylvania State Capitol

Posted on July 29, 2019 by geek

I am continuing on my quest to see all the state capitols, and today was the Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg. It is gorgeous. Harrisburg is the third city to serve as the capital, and the current capitol is the third building in Harrisburg to serve that purpose. So I guess they had several chances to get it right. When the current building was dedicated, President Theodore Roosevelt said it was”the handsomest building” he ever saw. This capitol has everything: stained glass, paintings every where, tile, columns, and gold leaf galore. The rotunda was inspired by St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, and the steps and balconies with the rotunda were inspired by the Paris Opera House, so that says a lot about the design.

View of the capitol from the east or rear entrance. The east wing is relatively new.

The sides of the rotunda are filled with paintings. The quote below the paintings is a mosaic.

The floor of the rotunda and halls off of it are tile with many mosaics. My favorite is this happy bat.

Top of walls with stained glass in the Senate chamber.

Painting in the Supreme Court chamber. It says “Love, Law, and Wisdom”.

Stained glass ceiling of the Supreme Court chamber

Hallway from the rotunda to the Senate chamber

Hallway from the House of Representatives to the rotunda

Duquesne Incline

Posted on May 20, 2017 by geek

This is the Duquesne Incline in Pittsburgh. It is considered part of the public transportation system of Pittsburgh.
It is also a wonderful place to view Pittsburgh, especially downtown, and many of its bridges. If you are ever in Pittsburgh, go there. The ride is fun, and the view from the viewing platform at the top is amazing. As a side note, Pittsburgh has a lot of bridges, and they are all lovely.

PPG Place

Posted on May 19, 2017 by geek

It is probably a photographer thing, but sometimes I see something, and I just have to take a thousand photographs of it to capture how interesting it is or the cool way it looks. This is particularly true when I see really interesting architecture with interesting lines or reflections or curves or whatever. The Comcast Center in Philadelphia was one such building because of the way it almost disappeared into the sky. PPG Place in Pittsburgh is another such piece of architecture. It is not so much the shape of the buildings, but it is the way they reflect the buildings around them that I find so interesting. I love reflections. I love photographing reflections. I also love how somewhat similar to Comcast Center, it almost blends into the sky by reflecting the blue. So while in Pittsburgh, I took a huge number of photographs of PPG Place because I was just so intrigued and captivated by the way it reflected its surroundings.

Pittsburgh

Posted on May 19, 2017 by geek

I wanted to get away for a short vacation, so I went to Pittsburgh for a day. Why Pittsburgh? Well, why not? Also, getting to and from Pittsburgh involved two very pretty, long train rides, which was half the reason for the trip. Anyway, Pittsburgh is an amazingly walkable city, especially downtown. You can walk across all (I think) the bridges, and there are pedestrian and bike paths everywhere. Downtown has a lovely mix of old and new buildings. Basically I could wander around for a day taking photos, which was exactly what I wanted and what I did.

Building reflections downtown

Old tiled building juxtaposed with PPG glass building

Rather unique old building tower

Art deco (?) building

Fort Pitt Bridge over Monongahela River

Point State Park

Heinz Field

Fort Pitt Bridge over Monongahela River with downtown in background

North Shore Riverwalk with Fort Duquesne Bridge in background

Downtown viewed from across the Allegheny River

Robert Clemente Bridge and downtown

The white in the background is the convention center roof, which I assume was designed to have the same catenary curve as the suspension bridges seen in foreground