The High Line

The High Line looms between Gansevoort Street, around Little West 12th, and stretches all the way to 30th street. It’s an elevated rail structure built in the early 1930’s as part of the West Side Improvement project, one of NYC’s largest investments in transportation infrastructure, ever. The structure stretches nearly 1.5 miles, and has been abandoned since the last trains ran their course on it in the 1980. Now the stretch of railway has been colonized by grass, weeds, and general greenery, looming above the streets, almost forgotten, until now. In ’99 a group of neighborhood residents founded “Friend of The High Line“, with a mission to convert the structure into some type of elevated open space– and this past fall, the State of New York and the CSX transportation company that owns the structure finally declared their support. So far, 50+ million dollars has been committed toward the project. The Friends of The High Line website has tons of great pictures of the structure as it stands now, as well as preliminary designs from the architectural firm Diller Scofidiio and Renfro. I see this as an incredibly positive move for NYC, and I forecast it to be a big and popular event when it does finally open!