Life is full of journeys. Some take an hour, a day, or even a lifetime, but all of them are equally important. Every adventure serves as an addition to the mold that shapes who we are, and in most journeys, we set out to find one thing, but end up learning another. On April 8th, 2017, I embarked on my own one day journey with my mother, and despite thinking we may never walk again because our feet and legs were so sore, we learned about each other and bonded after some time apart. Even though it felt just like old times, there was also a new feeling as we traveled around the city of Pittsburgh for what some people found to be quite a peculiar reason.
We began our journey early Saturday morning around 9:30 and walked along Baum Blvd. until we found our first target on the corner of Morewood Ave. Protractor number 99. Our goal was to find at least 50 of the 500 mysterious protractors that “are securely fastened to bridges, garbage cans, stones, mailboxes, benches, street signs, and other objects around the city” (Pittsburgh Protractors). They began popping up around 2011, and so we began the day quite skeptical of being able to find any, since it’s now 2017, but after finding protractor number 100 on the corner of Broughton Street, we began to get excited. We were using the Protractor Map for guidance, a map made by Eric Lidji, who could be titled the founder of the protractors, as he was a huge contributor to their publicity from 2011 to 2013.
With already finding two in the first fifteen minutes, there was a little extra pep in our steps and the sunshine was beginning to warm the streets of Pittsburgh. As we followed Morewood, we merged with South Millvale and then turned on Yew St., where there was supposed to be a protractor in this little alleyway. We searched and searched and couldn’t find it, so we continued on. There were a lot of protractor locations we passed where there no longer was a protractor, as it had been removed throughout the years. We caught up on current happening in both of our lives as we kept following the path of protractors until we hit this street that smelled so delicious from an Italian market down the street. My mother suggested we eat there for lunch, and I considered it, until we turned the corner and I completely lost my appetite as the stench of trash and dumpsters filled my nostrils. But this is where the protractors were. We found some on doors, and assumed some had been taken away with the dumpster they were most likely on, but as we walked farther we found one in the worst photo spot ever. My mother and I had to squeeze right behind this overflowing dumpster that took our breath away it smelled so bad just to take this picture. I still am not sure it was worth it, except for the good laugh it gave us afterwards. Once we got out of the alley, we went to cross the Bloomfield Bridge and realized we were in Pittsburgh’s Little Italy, which explained the amazing Italian smells. We first went under the bridge and found a cute field hockey court full of young kids, but then quickly realized all of the protractors were on the bridge. As we walked across, we found six protractors in total while talking about boyfriends and the latest gossip in the families. The stories lasted all the way over the long bridge and more as we crossed on a foot bridge over Bigelow Blvd. where we found two more protractors. One was cleverly hidden on the outside on the bridge.
Once we made it across the bridge we scanned the map for any other protractors near us and found none worth the walk. Considering we only had a forty-five minutes left on our meter anyway, we decided to walk back. We did a complete backtrack, and when we came back to that alley on Yew Street, we looked again for the protractor that was supposed to be there and I jokingly pointed out to my mother, “Oh look at this part of the wall. The company logo is in the shape of a protractor. Do you think this counts?” And then as I looked closer, I seen the ghost of a protractor right in the middle of the logo. We laughed so hard as we continued back to the car. Once we got in, we realized how sore our feet already were and decided it was a good time to take a lunch break. We moved the car over behind the Cathedral of Learning and proceeded to walk to Noodles and Co. for lunch. While we ate, we talked about how crazy this whole situation was and why this mysterious person may have done it. While I was thinking, it reminded me of a science fiction book I read in class, Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Thomas Sweterlitsch, where there is a tech savvy, independent artist named Mook that puts geocached installations all over the country. These installations are video streams he created that can only be seen at specific coordinates. Another character in the books says, “There are fans of his who try to track them down, catalog them—but Mook says only about twenty-five percent of his installations have been discovered so far” (Sweterlitsch 204). That really reminds me of the protractors because lots of people have tried to document all of the locations of the protractors, but there are still a lot that have not been found yet. The mystery of the protractors themselves already frustrates me, and when I compare it to this story, which is based in Pittsburgh, it really blows my mind.
After lunch we went to look for some protractors that were down around Junction Hollow Trail. On the way, we found two along McKee, but Junction Hollow was a complete bust. We wanted to cry after walking all the way down into this hollow and now our poor tired legs had to walk all the way back up. We decided to take the gradual incline and circle back to the car versus a backtrack that would take us up the dreaded steps; however, that was maybe the biggest circle ever created. It took us FOREVER to get back to the Cathedral! It was miserable, but it gave me time to get my mom up to speed on things I have been taking part in and creating at the University. She kept offering to help me, especially on making my poster for this project. I could tell she was missing those nights she use to dread in high school, where I’d have her up half the night helping me finish a project that was due the very next day. We always got so competitive about it, making sure our project would put every other kids’ to shame. So on our way to Penn Ave., we discussed ways to make my poster amazing. Sadly, the protractors were no longer cooperating. Penn Ave. was supposed to be cluttered with protractors, but the city had recently replaced all the light poles, trashcans, and benches; therefore, a lot of the protractors were gone. We tried our luck on the back streets and alleys and we eventually hit a small jackpot. During that time we had been stopped by two women in a car who didn’t understand exactly what we were doing. The one woman had replied, “The math things? Really?!” It became our new joke for the afternoon. Then a man on his porch asked us if we were looking for Pokémon and we laughed with embarrassment for a whole two blocks.
From Penn Ave. we moved over to Friendship Ave. and found a few protractors in a nice small park. From there on, though, things got a bit sketchy. The next big bunch was down the road of Sassafras Street. We drove down this abandoned road by an old warehouse and we refused to get out of the car for a picture with the only protractor we found. Then we moved on near the Strip District and near the Allegheny River. From here out, we began to look for the protractors from the car, as we were scared to get out. The streets that these protractors were on were terrifying. Graffiti was everywhere, the alleys were dark, and they just screamed horror film. Despite the strange locations, we did find quite a few, including one that was never located before: Protractor number 30. But, even with all of these new protractors, we only had found forty-three so far. We needed seven more. And so we drove across the river and walked on a small trail over the Pittsburgh highway where we found four more. So we trekked back and then walked all the way across the David McCullough Bridge where we found two ghosts. We needed one more, which was supposed to be located under the bridge on the Three Rivers Heritage Trail. I think we walked a mile just to find it, but we did. We had found fifty protractors in one day, not including all the ones that were no longer in their mapped location. We called it a success and drug our weary legs back to the car.
Finally, after a long day of hunting, we were able to sit down for good. We both knew we may not be able to walk the next day because our legs and feet were already so sore. We could feel a sunburn coming in on our faces and lips and our stomachs were growling uncontrollably. Despite all of our discomforts, it was a great day. We had laughed more than we each had laughed in a while, and I felt a new connection with my mom. We made plans for the upcoming summer and we developed new inside jokes. We got lost inside the city of Pittsburgh and saw parts we didn’t even know existed. Even some we wished we didn’t know existed! As we were driving back, I thought about all the theories around the protractors. A symbol of the bridges, a crazed math student, or a new reason to get out and explore the incredible city of Pittsburgh. I thought back to a quote I read in Theory of Loose Parts by Simon Nicholson that said, “In any environment, both the degree of inventiveness and creativity, and the possibility of discovery, are directly proportional to the number and kind of variable in it” (Nicholson 6). I admire whoever glued these protractors all over the city. He or she is so creative and will always have this entire city wondering what the reason is for these “math things?” And whatever that reason may be, we may never know. All we know is the thrill of discovering one, the ideas they give us, and the journey they take us on, and that’s more important than a reason to me.
Works Cited
Nicholson, Simon. The Theory of Loose Parts, An Important Principle for Design Methodology. 2nd ed. Vol. 4. N.p.: n.p., 1972. Print.
"Pittsburgh Protractors." Atlas Obscura. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2017.
Sweterlitsch, Tom. Tomorrow and Tomorrow. New York: Berkley Pub Group, 2015. Print.