If you want to visit New York’s newest, and perhaps most interesting park, you have to look up because it’s right above your head! The High Line, which opened this summer, is located on Manhat- tan’s West Side and starts at Gansevoort Street near 14th Street and runs to 20th Street.
The park is being opened in stages and right now runs to 20th Street. What makes it so interesting is that the High Line is built on an old freight railroad line that is elevated above the streets of Manhattan, giving visitors a unique view on the city around them.
The original rail line was built in the 1930s, in part to remove freight rail traffic from the crowded city streets. It was in use up until 1980, when the declining manufacturing base of Manhattan rendered it largely obsolete. But the structure remained and soon became overgrown with wildflowers and was only known to a few urban adventurers. But a few residents of Chelsea, where the High Line is situated, saw the potential for a park unlike any other in New York and formed a non-profit,Friends of the High Line, to advocate for saving the unique structure and making it accessible to the public.
After years of lobbying and fighting, the group prevailed and, in 2006, construction began. This summer saw all the work community activists and park lovers had put in come to fruition as the first part of the park, which will extend to 34th Street, opened.
Immediately, the High Line has become New York’s most fashionable park, so much so that for the first several week-ends, there were actually lines of people waiting to get in. The park is accessible at several points, including Gansevoort Street, 14th Street (where elevator access will be available later this summer), 16th Street (elevator access), 18th Street and 20th Street.
Much was done by the designers to keep the original feel of the railroad and of the wildness that enveloped it after it went out of use. There are still railroad tracks and wildflowers planted among them but the hardwood benches and amphitheater that look out on 10th Avenue have a solidly post-modern feel. The line docks through several buildings, and its height–more than 20 feet above the ground–adds to the surreal feeling. The High Line is a park like no other and certainly gives visitors a perspective on their city they are unlikely to get anywhere else.
The High Line is open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. You can get there by taking the L,A, C or E trains to 14th Street and 8th Avenue. For more information, visit www.thehighline.org.