The High Line is a city park like no other. It sits on an abandoned elevated freight line. Its design includes traits of sculpture, contemporary architecture, urban archeology, gardening, people watching and sightseeing.
For almost a hundred years, from 1847 until 1934, freight train lines ran down the center of Tenth Avenue to serve the factories and meat-packing industry on Manhattan's west side. The street level railroad was the source of numerous collisions and many fatalities. Finally during the 1930s the High Line was built, lifting freight traffic 30 feet into the air. Numerous sidings made it possible to run freight cars directly into the upper floors of the factory buildings. This system worked well for a time, but as trucking increased, rail traffic faded. The southern-most section of the High Line was demolished as it went out of use. The last train carrying a load of turkeys used the High Line in 1980.
The elevated track system sat abandoned for the next 20 years. Some property owners lobbied to have it demolished. An effort to restart rail traffic failed. In typical New York fashion, people from the neighborhood figured out ways to access the structure and began to use it as a private walkway. The structure was slated for demolition in 1999 when two neighborhood activists, Joshua David and Robert Hammond, formed “Friends of the High Line” to lobby to save the structure as open space.
The City gave it's support in 2002. CSX donated the structure south of 30th Street to Gansevoort Street in 2005. Construction on the park began in 2006. The first section, from just outside the West Village to West 20th Street, opened in June 2009. The second section, from West 20th Street to West 30th Street, is scheduled to open later this spring.
The experience of walking on the High Line is unique. It's a platform for viewing the city. It's a sculpture in itself. It incorporates extensive gardens and innovative art installations. It has numerous well-designed public spaces, like the wooden recliners on railroad wheels that were so attractive to me on the cold early spring day we visited.
If you have an hour or so and want to take a walk in NYC, try the High Line. You'll be glad you did.
