Highline Park
Highline Park, the rust iron relic of West Side Manhattan’s ghostly High Line train turned NY version of a pedestrian friendly, elevated Promenade Plantee, is scheduled to open by December of 2008. Construction began over 2 years ago and is near completion for the first section stretching from Gansevoort St. to 20th St. running along 10th Ave. For those unfamiliar, the Highline was the West Side’s only elevated train line and was specifically built in 1929 to stop the conditions that lead to 10th Ave.‘s unfortunate nickname, “Death Avenue” where heavily loaded freight trains were notorious for running over pedestrians, horses, cars or anything else that was unlucky enough to get in their way. It ran for years and was eventually discontinued in 1980. After having faced numerous threats of demolition, the City of New York finally stepped in to preserve the space and set the ball in motion to eventually construct New York’s first public park built on a defunct elevated rail line. Click here for before and after pics as well as a link to the Highline’s official website and a virtual tour of the entire park.
Click here for the Highline website.
