Where am I?

BPE? Alaska?

Somewhere near Finleyville, PA south of that crazy cable car ride shown previously.

Posted by: @holy-cow

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Somewhere near Finleyville, PA south of that crazy cable car ride shown previously.

Close but more north. When I’m not on a plane, I’ll post photo clues.

Baldwin?

Very close to this.

@wendell 

My children's grandmother grew up with a Finleyville address.  I was there one Summer day in 1977.  When someone in the household says, "I'm going up to the garden", that is exactly what they mean.  Can almost get a nosebleed remembering the trek on the zigzag path.

Started that day near Joe Namath's hometown, then to one of the big offices near the top of the U.S. Steel Headquarters to call on a good friend, then up to Warrendale to the Headquarters of SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) to meet with a couple of good friends, then to Finleyville, then headed south through Morgantown to a small town Inn for the night.  The only available room was on the third floor of the old building.  Our room had six double beds.  Promised to only use one for my wife and me.

BPE is Pittsburgh Bureau of Public Education. These mon boxes are typically found around the block containing a public school building in the City of Pittsburgh. Most of the mon boxes are DPW...Department of Public Works. There are others but I can't remember right now what they are. Inside the box is usually a concrete monument with a disk or an iron pin. Some are empty...victims of the handicap ramp program, where the contractor would just put the cover back after ripping out the sidewalk. Or worse, put the monument itself back in a random location. 

The city had a very extensive survey program in the early 1900's with a large triangulation net and traverses as well as a level network and color maps produced by planetable methods. At one time there were about 18,000 survey points in the city. All, adjusted and described on index cards. In the 60's when photogrammetry came along, someone decided to throw out all of the books, comps, etc. All that remains are index cards in an office under the Liberty Bridge. 

I gave a presentation years ago about the City survey network. If anyone is interested, I can send you a copy of my powerpoint that talked about the City of Pittsburgh system and the USACE Harbor Line system. Both are important for historical surveys around here. 

Here is a link to the maps: https://historicpittsburgh.org/content/city-pittsburgh-geodetic-topographic-survey-maps-1923-1961

And a 1923 report on the survey...

I have a full set of the series 7 maps, which show all of the survey points with their designations, here is a sample...

Over the years I have tried to tie in some of the triangulation stations, and have computed local transformations to NAD83. The system was tied to several USGS stations (NOT USCGS, although some are both USGS and USCGS). The datum is NAD (aka USSD, predecessor to NAD27) with an origin of 100,000/100,000 at 40°26'N/80°00W.

An original map sheet:

much nicer than the modern b&W sheets produced by computer

Here us the inside of a mon box, this one is a city line monument...buried about a foot in a flood plain.

DING DING DING

Yes, both of these monument boxes were along the south side of Grandview Avenue.

After we went to the Duquesne Incline, we walked down to St. Mary's on the Mount church. We kept walking to Shiloh and had dinner before returning to the church for a tour. The views from up there are stunning.

For my whole life, I've never spent a lot of time thinking about Pittsburgh. But I've always heard people speak negatively about it. Nothing specific that I remember, just things like, "Oh man, I have to go to Pittsburgh for a work meeting," or something similar. It was never, "Oh boy, I get to go to Pittsburgh!" I never knew why, but I just figured it was because it's a large city with the typical crime, etc. Now that I've been there, I don't understand the negativity. It is genuinely gorgeous and a fun place to visit.

We were only there for a few days, but right from the beginning we wanted to start planning another trip. We drove out to Shanksville area for the Flight 93 memorial and that was incredible. While out there, we also went to the Remember Me Rose Garden, Tower of Voices, and Post-9/11 Armed Forces Memorial.

We also attended a Pirates game and the stadium is impressive. I love how open it is. When we were leaving the game, we stopped to look at the city at night and I noticed a church on the top of the hill. You can't miss it at night, it stands out due to the great lighting. I said, "I want to go there," hence the visit to Grandview Avenue.

Yesterday, we decided to grab some lunch before heading to the airport. We went to EatN'Park and we were pleasantly surprised. The rosemary chicken was delicious and we grabbed some of their famous cookies on the way out.

Glad that you enjoyed it, Wendell. I grew up on the Allegheny River, swimming in it in the summer. In the past it was very much an industrial city, smoky, one famous quote was "hell with the lid off". Rivers were polluted. That all ended starting in the mid 80's. Now it is eds (Pitt and CMU) and meds (UPMC and AHN).

I have worked in all 50 states, couldn't tell you how many cities I've been to, but pretty much all of the major cities and a lot of smaller ones. People ask me where I would want to live the most. I always answer that I am happy here in Pittsburgh. There are people who absolutely lovie it, and others who really dislike it. Even in my own family, I have one daughter who never wanted to stay here, she left the week after she graduated college 18 years ago and never came back (except to visit). Her main complaint is the weather (cold, rainy). But it has become apparent that is an advantage. It could rain on any given day, there is not really a dry season. I see so many places in drought, we never have that problem. No earthquakes or hurricanes. Occasional tornado, but relatively rare. No wildfires. Moderate amount of snow. 

I am from the flatlands (Kansas), but really appreciate the topography here in western PA.

Thanks for sharing, Wendell!

Awesome pictures.  Who says a picture is worth a thousand words?!  LOL