High Line was a Highlight

One of the highlights of our stay in New York was the High Line Walkway. This innovative 1.45 mile-long public park has been created by converting a section of the disused New York Central Railroad spur. This elevated rail line was built in the early 1930s to eliminate street-level train crossings to improve both efficiency and public safety. Freight trains bowled along the West Side of Manhattan, 30 feet above the network of roads, delivering milk, meat and other produce to the upper floor loading docks of factories and warehouses. It was known as the “Life Line of New York”. In the 1960s with the advance of the interstate highways and the trucking industry rail traffic declined and gradually parts of the High Line were demolished or simply abandoned. In an inspiring collaboration between the Mayor, the city council and an energetic bunch of people who call themselves the “Friends of the High Line”, work began in 2006 to turn the desolate, but still standing section of the railway in to an urban park. It now welcomes nearly 5 million visitors each year to walk along the narrow landscape that hovers above the bustling city below.

This is how it used to look ….

Now with commitment and some TLC it looks a lot different.

I loved strolling along the walkway, in a slowly moving throng of tourists, ducking out occasionally to take advantage of the unusual views of the city.