New York's Incredible High Line Park

NYC High Line

A friend of mine tipped me off to New York's new High Line, which passed near where we were staying on our recent visit. The High Line itself is an old elevated rail line that used to ferry goods from the ships at port to the warehouses in the Meat Packing District. What makes it new is that rather then demo-ing what was left of the long out-of-use rail structure, it has recently been reclaimed and repurposed as a marvelous garden walkway, floating through the fashionable Chelsea neighborhood several floors above street level. Its completion is new enough (2011) that all the surrounding investment it has spurred is still filling up the spaces below and rising up around it: Several new condo hi-rises, large scale renovations of old buildings, even a new wing of the Whitney Museum of Art is in build-out at the south end of the line. An amazing urban space.

I was up at daybreak on Memorial Day so I could run it out (in a linkup with the Hudson Greenway). Lots to see.

Tracks as garden beds

Floating above Manhattan streets

One of many artistic contributions

Viewing spaces

These can track back and forth with the sun

Old rail spurs abut the surrounding buildings. They're now garden spurs.

Design frames design - IAC Building at left

Glass elevators to street level

Or stairs

End of the line - Gansvoort and Washington

View High Line Park - New York City in a larger map