Heating Pipes

I've mentioned the central heating pipes before. They're very common. These pipes carry steam, apparently, from the heating plant like the one in the "fishing" picture, to the buildings. The pipes are often quite large, and are wrapped in insulation and covered in what is often very beat-up sheet metal. It's the sheet metal you're seeing, not the pipe itself. The pipes are above ground because the winters are so cold that putting them below ground would make maintenance a real problem. Winters are often in the 35-below-zero range (Fahrenheit). The pipe in this picture is just outside our apartment -- it's very common for them to just go up and over walkway, like this one, or a road.