Arrive Magazine - July/August, 2009

First Class

TRAVEL TOOLS, GREAT GADGETS & COOL STUFF TO DO

Steps and ramps will cut into an elevated square over 10th Avenue, allowing visitors to descend into the structure. (Below) A walkway is surrounded by a landscape of native species that once grew spontaneously on the High Line, interspersed with new species that ensure bloom throughout the growing season.

Take the High Line

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, actually, it’s a park. Though not as high as a bird or a plane, the $170 million High Line Park just started hovering above Manhattan’s West Side. The sky park’s first section, which opened in June, blankets a half mile of the defunct elevated rail bed that bisects several blocks between Ninth and 11th avenues.

The High Line, abandoned as a rail system in 1980, has had a colorful history. It was preceded by a street-level train line built in 1847, which ran freight between Albany and Manhattan warehouses. Thereafter, a 13-mile elevated rail was constructed in the 1930s to prevent the frequent deaths caused by trains on what came to be known as Death Avenue. After the rail system closed, preservation-ists gained widespread support and prevented a one-and-a-half-mile section of structure from being torn down.

The High Line is now one of the world’s most innovative public spaces. Its distance from tra;c noise makes it tranquil, and its placement on the city’s growing West Side makes it accessible. It contains tapered walkways, benches that seamlessly peel up from the floorboards, original tracks from the storied rail system, and many of the 161 wild plant species that inhabited the rail bed after its abandonment.

The park’s creation has generated widespread enthusiasm for repurposing old, unused city structures. Similar projects are already under way in Chicago, Jersey City, Atlanta and Rotterdam. If deemed a success, the High Line will be a lasting inspiration for American cities.