Lens4anEye

Soul Stirring In July 2006 I was making my periodic trip to Braddock, PA to document the changes in this dying community. Braddock was once a powerhouse of the American steel industry. Located along the Monongahela River just upstream from Pittsburgh it commanded entire valley and fed raw steel to other finishing plants on both banks of the river and both upstream and down.    Click for larger image The post-WWII employment was at about 5000 men.    They and their families constituted a large portion of the local population. Braddock was home to many more workers who toiled in the East Pittsburgh Westinghouse factory and the towns of Linhart, Rankin and Swissvale.  The town, officially the Borough of Braddock, contained a bustling retail and professional business district along Braddock Avenue.    When the steel industry failed regional employment plummeted. Urban mobility was once defined by the streetcar tracks and inter urban passenger rail lines. Towns grew up along

Johnson Farm House, Frostburg, Maryland by Robert Carlson [ Lens4anEye ]   This is one of my earliest encounters with the Johnson Farm House. It had been sitting vacant for a couple of decades when I drove past it in about 1990.  The highway is US 40, also named as The National Road and extends all the way across the country to the west coast.   The location was on my route between Baltimore and Pittsburgh. That was a trip I would make 3 or 4 times a year to visit family and friend. Most of those trips were in conjunction with holidays; July 4, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Mothers and Fathers day. Interstate Highway 68 parallels the US 40 road and the house could be seen if anyone bothered to look to the side as they sped by.     Each time I reached the location just west of Frostburg, I would stop for another set of photographs which recorded the slow-motion slide toward oblivion for this once great house.     

Photography by Robert Carlson Listed on ClickaSnap.com as Profile Lens4anEye I like to start a project and follow it to wherever it takes me. Many times that means packing the car for a 2 or 3 day long trip and heading out on the generalized path I have chosen. One time it was to follow the Ohio river from Pittsburgh at one end and go to the other at Cairo, In.  This blog post covers parts of the national road known as William Penn Highway which extends from New York City to Cincinnati crossing New Jersey and Pennsylvania.  Most of the early course has been bypassed, with some segments several times. These photographs document the history of the road from Old to New to US 22 to various Interstate designations.  Photo Selection from the William Penn highway Album During the National Highway building program of the 1920s, Pennsylvania build thousands of culverts and bridges to facilitate the roadway. These structures were identified with a brass plaque such as this one.  This one has bee