THE HIGH LINE

Last weekend we went for a strool at the newly renovated High Line..

The High Line is the first public park of its kind in the United States, built 30 feet above Manhattan’s Meatpacking District on elevated tracks built for freight trains in the 1930s.
New York’s latest development, the High Line, stretches 1.45 miles along Manhattan’s West Side, from Gansevoort Street, in the Meatpacking District, up through Chelsea to 34th Street. But it’s not your average urban park — at its broadest, it is only 60ft wide, and it’s between 18ft and 30ft high.
The High Line runs along a disused elevated rail line that, for most of the 20th century, carried freight up and down one side of the island. The last train ran in 1980, pulling three carloads of frozen turkeys. After that, a lot of the line fell into disrepair, with weeds and grasses pushing up between the tracks. In 2006 they decided to turn the old tracks into a prominade.
It truly is something to see.  The walk way is ultra modern at times with bits of the past poking through.  They have left areas of exposed track and the beautiful satin glass windows of the the old factories. Surounded by modern architecture and sculptures.  They’ve used plenty of steel and exposed concrete, running in parallel lines, to reference the High Line’s original incarnation, as well as glass in places. Sleek curves give it a contemporary feel.
From your elevated position, you get to play hide-and-seek with the horizon, visible down valleys of brick and building as you walk past block after block. Along other stretches, however, there are uninterrupted views out to Staten Island and the Statue of Liberty, and the sunsets are pretty special.