The High Line was a train track that was lifted 30 feet above ground. It ran along the West Side. No trains have run on the track since 1980. This non-profit group called Friends of the High Line, formed in 1999 when this historic landmark was threatened by demolition. They are working with the City of New York to turn this elevated landmark into a NYC Public Park.
Jon and I had heard a lot of buzz about the High Line. (See my friend Shion’s review. Our computer is broken currently so I can’t load up my pictures from Sunday. Shion’s review has great pictures! ) Right now the section from Gansevoort to 20th Street is open to the public. They are currently working on the next section which I believe will run from 20th Street to 30th Street. We were looking for something to do on Sunday morning after church that wouldn’t take the whole day, but that would allow us to spend some time outdoors. Exploring the new High Line was a natural fit.
We entered at the 20th Street entrance and climbed the stairs to the high line walkway. The great thing is that they do have an elevator so people with strollers or who are in a wheelchair can also get up to the walkway to explore. We walked the path all the way down to Gansvoort and back to 16th Street (which only took us about 15-20 minutes). We enjoyed the views of the water, the Statue of Liberty and just NYC in general. I loved how they incorporated the old tracks into the design. I think the plantings mixed in with the train tracks looks so cool.
The whole walkway follows a very sleek, clean and simple design. It has very smooth lines and I thought that they took the space and made it a very nice, modern, community, public park! They also have plenty of options of seating for people to take advantage of. Getting their early on a Saturday or Sunday and grabbing one of the wooden lounge chairs to read for a bit I think would be a great way to start a weekend day. Hopefully we’ll make it back soon to do just that!
Afterwards we wandered through Chelsea Market, which I had never visited before. I plan to go back and have breakfast there with Jon one weekend and perhaps take the Chelsea Market Tour (which we discovered existed when we were there) and I’ll do a full and proper blog post on it!
Post in Comments:
Have you visited the High Line yet? Do you feel it is a good addition of Park Space in NYC?
[...] We walked the High Line Walkway [...]
[...] Tim and his wife, Christine! This is why I need to write myself notes. So anyway, way back when Jon and I went to the High Line for the first time, we went to Chelsea Market afterwards and I saw all of these people on tours. [...]