SkyscraperPage Forum - Epic American Journey

So, I moved to Pittsburgh about 5 months ago from Houston. Just kinda moved up here on a whim thanks to the Rock which glows after I lost my job back in December. I took about 2 weeks to get up here and visited tons of stuff on my drive up that I've always wanted to see. This thread may blow your computer up, but I didnt want to split my trip up into separate threads.

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Leaving Houston on 59.

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First stop, a trashy flea market in Moscow, TX

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Driving through the Davy Crocket National Forest saw a house burning down in Groveton, TX.

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The 1690 Mission San Francisco de los Tejas (reconstruction) was built near modern day Weches, TX in the Davy Crocket National Forest. It was built in order to keep an eye on what the pesky French were doing in Louisiana, but was abandoned after just 3 years.

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Abandoned farm near Nacogdoches, TX.

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Downtown Nacogdoches, which is where I went to college for one year before moving to Arkansas. Nacogdoches is also the oldest town in Texas.

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Stephen F. Austin theatre, near the SFA campus where I went to school.

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The tiny podunk of Chireno east of Nacogdoches.

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A very old homestead east of Chireno, may date from the 1820s or so.

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Downtown San Augustine near the Louisiana border.

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The Center, TX courthouse.

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LOUISIANA

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Downtown Many, LA

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Fort Jesup, built in 1822 was the furthest southwest military outpost at the time. It was built due to a dispute with Spain over the border of Texas.

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Natchitoches, the oldest town (1714) in Louisiana and the oldest settlement in the future Louisiana Purchase territory. Established by the French to keep an eye on what the Spanish were doing in East Texas and to prevent them from expanding their territory into Louisiana.

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Downtown Natchitoches. On a sidenote, Nagogdoches and Nitchitoches (pronounced Nacadish) has a huge college football rivalry with each other.

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The 1790 Prudhomme Rouquier house in Natchitoches is very indicative of colonial era to mid 1800s Acadian styled homes found typically further south around Lafayette and Baton Rouge, where I lived for a year.

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North central Louisiana didnt have much to take photos of, but then you get to the east central part of the state in the severely economically depressed deltra region along the Mississippi and theres tons and tons of destroyed towns, same goes for the delta region of Arkansas and Tennessee. Most look like Jonesville, pictured above.

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MISSISSIPPI

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Crossing over the Mississippi looking back over Louisiana in Natchez, MS. I was unfortunately plagued by rain the first 4 or so days of my trip and could only take photos in the brief periods it wasnt raining so I missed out on a lot of the stuff I wanted to photograph.

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Natchez is a beautifully preserved city that was largely spared destruction during the Civil War, unlike Vicksburg further up the river. The town is beautifully preserved and restored and was a highlight of my trip.

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More Acadian styled homes, probably the furthest east you will find this style.

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Beautiful Victorian home with two tourets, which is unusual, in Natchez.

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Natchez sits on a very tall bluff overlooking the Mississippi River.

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The 1845 Melrose Plantation just outside of Natchez.

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Remnants of the Natchez Trace Trail just north of Natchez, which is an historic road whites and even earlier native Americans used since pre history. Later developed as a road after the Louisiana Purchase from Nashville to Natchez.

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The 770 foot long and 35' tall Emerald Mound along the Mississippi River in between Natzhez and Vicksburg. Built between 1250 and abandoned in the early 1600s, its the second largest mound in North America, built during the Mississippian period by the Plaquemen Culture.

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Driving around some back country roads trying to find the ghost town of Rodney along the Mississippi River.

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An antebellum church in the abandoned town of Rodney, MS.

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Another abandoned church in Rodney, with a civil war era cannonball stuck in its masonry from when it was a major town before the river shifted its course and left the town high and dry.

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Driving further north along the trace you come across this abandoned and burnt down Windsor Plantation built in 1859, once one of the grandest in the south.

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An abandoned log cabin south of Vicksburg along the river.

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Downtown Vicksburg, along the Mississippi.

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Moving east from the Mississippi River and you hit Jackson, MS; the capitol.

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The capital building, where I blasted Heres to the State of Mississippi by Phil Ochs.

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Jacksons meager skyline.

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Traveling further east along 20 in eastern MS comes the destroyed town of Meridian.

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ALABAMA

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Driving east on 20 I came across the amazing tiny town of Eutaw, which has dozens upon dozens of pre Civil War Greek Revival homes like this one north of the town.

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An abandoned Victorian in Eutaw.

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A cool railroad bridge near Tuscaloosa.

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Tuscaloosa, home to the University of Alabama, also site of the 2011 tornado.

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The gigantic Crimson Tide stadium, which life revolves around in the state.

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Next is Birmingham, Alabama; the Pittsburgh of the south.

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Downtown Birmingham.

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Abandoned Greek Revival home in Birmingham.

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Old abandoned steel furnace in Birmingham.

Then I got a flat tire just outside of Birmingham and lost a day to that so I hauled ass and skipped some towns to spend time in Atlanta.

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GEORGIA

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Atlanta

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View from the W Hotel

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CNNs headquarters.

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Leaving Atlanta, I went north towards Chattanooga, TN along 75 and came across the recently partially destroyed town of Adairsville, GA.

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Cabin from the old Cherokee Capital of New Echota, GA from 1825, then they were forced to move along the trail of Tears in the 1830s to Oklahoma.

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TENNESSEE

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Part of downtown Chattanooga.

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Chattanoogas skyline.

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Leaving Chattanooga going towards Great Smokey Mountain National Park I came across the tiny town of Philadelphia.

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Loudan, TN

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Marryville, TN

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After Marryville came Great Smokey Mountain National Park, which Ive wanted to visit since I was a little kid. Unfortunately the vast majority of the park that I wanted to see in North Carolina was blocked off and would have taken forever to get to due to a washed out road. Oh well. This is Cades Cove.

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Cades Cove Mill from 1868.

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A rare Double-cantilevered barn in Cades Cove from the 1880's.

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I hiked a few miles back on a trail to get to that waterfall and got hit by a mountain blizzard and almost got stuck back on the trail, which would have not been good.

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Leaving the national park you come across one of the most horrid things one could ever imagine, Pigeon Forge, TN; where a huge Evangelical Baptist convention thing was going on, must have been 7000 kids in this building getting filled with anti gay bigotry.

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The horror.

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The Titanic in Tennessee.

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Leaving the tourist trap redneck wasteland of Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg I came across Knoxville, TN.

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Huge church in downtown Knoxville.

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La Follette, TN, north of Knoxville.

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KENTUCKY

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The first ever KFC in North Corbin, KY

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Kentucky, especially around Richmond and Lexington is some of the most beautiful countryside Ive ever seen.

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All of the barns and farms around Lexington all had these beautiful family crests above their doors. This one is just south of the town of Richmond, KY.

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Downtown Richmond, KY

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Abandoned church north of Richmond.

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Spent a day in Lexington which is a beautifully restored and preserved town, one of the prettiest small towns Ive seen.

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The Henry Clay mansion originally built in 1811 in the federal style, it burnt later and was rebuilt in the same plan in the 1870s in the Italianate style, but still kept the original floor plans and overall layout of the original Federalist structure.

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Downtown Lexington.

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Henry Clays Law office built in 1803. Henry Clay was an important senator during the 1830s and 1840's.

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Horse country north of Lexington.

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Downtown Paris, just northeast of Lexington

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Paris

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North of Paris.

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Downtown Cynthiana, KY.

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Early 1800s home south of Cincinnati's suburbs.

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Covington, KY just across the Ohio from Cincinnati.

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Cincinnatis skyline from the Kentucky side of the Ohio River.

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OHIO

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The now destroyed and torn down Glencoe Auburn neighborhood in Cincinnati.

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Glencoe Auburn, mere weeks before it was torn down and I just happened to see it before it was gone forever.

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Still in need of gentrification parts of Over-the-Rhine neighborhood.

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Over-the-Rhine

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Cincinnati's former train station.

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Over-the-Rhine and downtown.

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A quick night trip to Dayton.

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Leaving Cincinnati for Pittsburgh.

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Ohio was kinda boring, nothing much between Cincy and Columbus. But heres downtown Columbus from the west side of the city.

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The beautifully preserved German bricktown in Columbus was quite impressive, never have seen so much brick in my entire life.

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More Bricktown.

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Columbus skyline.

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West Virginia

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Then made a hasty retreat for Pittsburgh as it was freezing cold, made a quick stop in downtown Wheeling, WV before I got to Pittsburgh, which is about an hour away from Wheeling.

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The 1847 Wheeling Suspension Bridge along the National Road.
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The Burgh.

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