Category: Water Under the Bridge

This past week has been particularly busy for me. Despite losing a full week of school and being forced to function remotely, the graduating Seniors in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Pitt were required to complete all their final assignments this week and take their final exams next week. The most significant of these challenges is the completion of their Senior Design Projects. In their final semester our students are required to participate in a significant “near-real-world” team design project. Before my retirement it was my responsibility to coordinate this program. This term I volunteered to mentor one…

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One positive consequence of being sequestered is the fact that it has provided me with a few more hours each week to devote to reading. My love of reading has always placed high on my list of blessings. An inventory of the pile of books within reach of my favorite chair in the living room would be a good guide to my current interests. The first one I reach for each day is “Jack Frake”, which is the first book in the “Sparrowhawk” series. It was a gift from my former student and dear friend Kevin Abt. There are six…

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An expression heard frequently these days is that “things will never be the same again”. It’s easy to believe that, and indeed it does appear that major catastrophes like our current pandemic do have long ranging effects on many aspects of our lives. However it is also true that gradual evolutionary changes have a similar effect and perhaps an even greater one. Every time our Octogenarian Brunch Club gets together someone brings up incidents from our youth that demonstrate how much things have changed since then. In an effort to shift our intention away from today’s problems, we have decided…

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A few days before social distancing turned into sequestering I saw an item in the paper regarding a virtual swing dance party to be held by the Boilermaker Jazz Band that evening. I decided to investigate it and was rewarded royally for my curiosity. I have been aware of the Boilermakers since their earliest days, three decades ago. More recently we saw a current version of the band at one of Pitt’s lunch time concerts. Founder and (antique) Albert system clarinetist Paul Cosentino is its leader; trombonist Jeff Bush shares the front line with him these days. We know Bush…

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“Water Under the Bridge” is a local, human-interest column that was published in the Bridgeville News and a series of newspapers that succeeded it from 1991 through 2019. It has continued as a blog, currently being published on Substack.com. Its author, John Oyler, is a retired Civil Engineer and University of Pittsburgh professor. His email address is joylerpa@icloud.com. Water Under the Bridge, Copyright © 2016-2026

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Long time readers of this column will be aware of my obsession with dogsled racing and especially the Iditarod. It started fifteen years ago, when my wife and I had a memorable vacation in Alaska, during which we visited five different kennels. This year, of course, the Iditarod was the last major sporting event before the corona virus chased us all into sequestration. When asked if he thought the event should be stopped in favor of “social distancing”, one musher suggested that camping out with a dozen dogs in sub-zero weather in the Alaska wilderness was probably the extreme of…

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These certainly are unique times. Who could have predicted the complete suspension of all major sporting events, the transition of education from classroom to on-line, the proliferation of working-at-home, and the disappearance of toilet paper from the super market shelves? I must admit I agree with the logic of “social distancing”. Certainly, minimizing the contact between individuals will dramatically reduce the rapid transmission of this frightening virus, hopefully enough that our existing medical facilities will be able to adequately care for all of us who are infected. The emphasis on washing one’s hands frequently reminded me of the social onus…

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This week we have a guest columnist, my brother Joe, with a column I wish I had written. In his words… When men from our neighborhood perished while serving in the military during World War 2 and the Korean War it left a lasting impression on me.  Since 2005 I have been involved in five projects that honor men and women who served our country in  the military. In 2011 I published the book, “Almost Forgotten” which commemorates 116 men from the Bridgeville and South Fayette Area who perished while serving in the military. Now I have developed an interest…

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The Bridgeville Area Historical Society welcomed back one of its favorite speakers last month, Dr. John Aupperle. His subject this year was Barbara Bush, based on the recent biography “Matriarch”, by Susan Page. Barbara Pierce was born in New York City in 1925 and reared in nearby Rye, New York. Her father was President of McCall Corporation, publisher of popular women’s magazines. If her future husband, George H. W. Bush, was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, her spoon was at least silver-plated. Her mother and her older sister, Martha, were both slender fashion plates; in contrast Barbara…

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We have been aware of Judge Henry Baldwin’s illustrious career and his minor place in Bridgeville history for a number of years. We know that he built a summer home, Recreation, in what is now the Greenwood neighborhood in Bridgeville in the early 1800s, which he eventually sold to Moses Coulter in 1818. We know that the eastern end of Station Street was originally a country lane leading from the Washington Pike to Recreation. We know that Coulter sold Recreation to the Walter Foster family in 1842. They in turn sold it to Dr. William Gilmore in 1879, who left…

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