the high line is open!

The High Line entrance and cool logo, designed by Pentagram.
[all images in this post by Matthew McDermott]

The end of the line. Gansevoort Street.
The Standard Hotel in the background.


The cement walkway imitates the old railroad tracks.


Yup. Places to lounge too.

Perhaps you have been hearing for years about a mysterious park on a deserted elevated railway on the West Side of New York called the High Line? Well it's open now, and totally worth a visit! It's free. It's open 7 days, from 7am to 10pm. If you like gazing at New York's beautiful skyline and Hudson River from new angles, you'll like this new parkway.

Bring someone you like. Bring some lunch. Or buy a cookie and iced coffee from one of two small concession stands from Birdbath* along the multi-block route. There are lots of pretty flowers and young plants. And interesting architectural details that imitate the old railroad tracks. And plenty of benches to stop, sit and contemplate what used to be transported along the High Line.

Here are a few points of history for you. The High Line was built in the 1930s to remove dangerous freight traffic from the streets, elevating the trains 30 feet in the air above Manhattan's largest industrial district at the time. Trains stopped running on the High Line in 1980. A neighborhood advocacy group called Friends of the High Line was established in 1999 to save the High Line from demolition. The project gained support from the City in 2002. Landscape architects James Corner Field Operations and architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro were selected to design the new repurposed public space. The first portion of the High Line opened in June of 2009, running from Gansevoort to 20th Street.



*Birdbath is a division of City Bakery--they have excellent chocolate chip cookies!