I have been privileged for the past twenty-five years to be associated with the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of Pittsburgh, as an adjunct professor. Legally my assignment has been half-time, teaching two courses each semester. Despite being an outsider I have managed to insert myself into the department structure sufficiently to be invited to Faculty meetings. Commencement at a large University tends to be highly impersonal because so many students are involved. Traditionally the School of Engineering has had a separate, additional ceremony in which each student is recognized individually. Even that process has become unwieldy,…

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The April program meeting for the Bridgeville Area Historical Society was an interesting presentation on a progressive (at least at that time) planned development in Donora early in the twentieth center. The speaker was Brian Charlton, a self-described “conceptual historian” whose talk was focused on connecting concepts: social, economic, industrial and demographics. Mr. Charlton’s credentials include teaching history in the Belle Vernon School District, serving as curator of the Donora Smog Museum, and being a co-author of the Arcadia publication, “Donora”. His specific subject was “Cement City”, a Donora neighborhood that includes about eighty residences constructed from concrete. The speaker…

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According to the Third Amendment of the Octogenarian Bill of Rights, it is permissible for people eighty years of age or older to engage in mind wandering rather than thinking logically. I certainly am taking full advantage of this right lately. I begin focusing on one subject and, a few minutes later, am obsessed with something completely different. For example, at our recent workshop on George Washington in southwestern Pennsylvania, I mentioned that the primary unit for length used in Washington’s surveys was the “pole”. Washington’s survey of a 400 acre plot of land was a perfect square with sides…

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The Bridgeville Area Historical Society interrupted its series of “Second Tuesday” workshops dealing with the history of Bridgeville High School this month and focused instead on significant events that occurred in this area over two and a half centuries ago. The Society recently submitted a proposal to the Robert R. Banks Foundation for funding required for establishment of a significant permanent exhibit dedicated to George Washington’s seven visits to Western Pennsylvania in the eighteenth century and the impact they had on this area. This is an extremely ambitious endeavor, but one that would be of great benefit to the local…

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My enthusiasm about Japanese wood-block prints began in the mid-1950s when I spent sixteen months in Japan, in the service. The genre is unique, and the landscapes by Utagawa Hiroshige are easily my favorite examples of it. Recently my daughter Elizabeth and I attended a lecture sponsored by the Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania celebrating the opening of a new exhibition of prints from Hiroshige’s most famous series, “Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido”. It is an outstanding example of the ukiyo-e (pictures of the floating world). Dr. Brenda Jordan, the Director of the University of Pittsburgh national coordinating site for the…

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The March program meeting for the Bridgeville Area Historical Society nearly had to be cancelled when the scheduled speaker called in sick the day of the meeting. Fortunately, program chairperson Rosemary Kasper was able to come up with a last-minute substitute, the speaker scheduled for next month. The person who came to the rescue was a young man named Rob Hilt. He and his partner had announced a subject, “History Hounds: Preserving and Saving Local History Through Metal Detecting”. The topic did not arouse much enthusiasm in me; my exposure to metal detectors had been limited to watching a pair…

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The abrupt collapse of the FIU bridge has generated a lot of excitement in the structural engineers’ community. If it weren’t for the fact that at least six people lost their lives, I suspect we would be happy that it occurred and provided us with the opportunity to act as amateur forensic investigators and attempt to understand what went wrong. Actually, as a structural engineer, I am embarrassed on behalf of our profession. We are obligated to provide safe structures for their users and should be technically capable of doing that. The first problem was sorting through the available information…

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The Bridgeville Area Historical Society continued its review of the history of Bridgeville High School in its March “Second Tuesday” workshop. It was particularly nostalgic for the facilitator who is a proud alumnus of the ’49 class. Seventy years ago the atmosphere was mostly optimistic, the aftermath of the conclusion of World War II. There were still reminders however; in the summer of 1948 there were memorial and burial services for two local men who had lost their lives in the war – Lieutenant Warren Carson and Private James Michaels. Even more sobering, in retrospect, was the knowledge that two…

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We educators spend a lot of time worrying about the unique characteristics of our students and brainstorming techniques to best serve them. I personally have focused on promoting independent thinking and creativity instead of just presenting information to be regurgitated on demand. The last several years this problem has escalated, apparently because the students who are now reaching the university level have grown up in the Information Age where the answer to nearly every question can be acquired via Google. As Adrian Monk used to say, “That is a blessing and a curse”. It has been my practice to encourage…

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After David Aitken gave his talk on the Little Saw Mill Run Railroad to the Bridgeville Area Historical Society last Fall, he and I had an interesting discussion about the Pittsburgh Southern Railroad in specific, and the nineteenth century railroads in southern Allegheny County in general. A few days later he sent me a link to a map of Allegheny County in 1890 on the Library of Congress website. Like all old maps it was full of interesting information. Our discussion had been regarding the route the Pittsburgh Southern took through Mt. Lebanon. The Southern had been organized by Milton…

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