A new stretch of New York’s High Line on Manhattan’s West Side opened last summer, and yesterday, I had a chance to walk it. A late-afternoon sun slanted across the pathway, gilding everything—plate glass, facades, even the grass—with gold.
At its northern end, the new extension opens to the West Side Rail Yards, and here, there is gold of another sort at work. The private rail freight company that still owns this section of the High Line has now agreed to donate this last remaining section to the City of New York. And all financial stakeholders have voiced their commitment to preserve the entire historic structure of the High Line at the West Side Rail Yards.
We walked the Line from north to south, catching reflections against brick as we went.
A familiar sight: newspapers getting their afternoon read on a High Line embankment.
Near the southern terminus in the Meatpacking District, vendors serve up steaming cups of coffee.
An open-air bar sprawls on a wooden deck set in an expanded space against a backdrop of steel.
The High Line’s innovative spaces and places to chill out run from Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District to West 34th Street, between 10th & 11th Avenues. There’s art too, and performances to attend. Read the Friends of the High Line’s website and blog to keep up with the latest developments.
A friendly local I met on a bus offered me advice on where to go in the city, and I asked her about the High Line. She looked a bit chagrined as she apologized, “I haven’t been there yet, but my granddaughter has. And you should, too.”
The lovely lady is missing out!
