New York High Line

The High Line was built in the 1930s, as part of a massive public-private infrastructure project called the West Side Improvement. It lifted freight traffic 30 feet in the air, removing dangerous trains from the streets of Manhattan's largest industrial district. No trains have run on the High Line since 1980. Friends of the High Line, a community-based non-profit group, formed in 1999 when the historic structure was under threat of demolition. Friends of the High Line works in partnership with the City of New York to preserve and maintain the structure as an elevated public park.

THE HIGH LINE FORMERLY KNOWN AS "DEATH AVENUE"

Before the High Line In 1847, the City of New York authorized the street-level railroad tracks running down Manhattan's West Side as far south as Canal Street to allow freight to run between New York City and Albany.

Days of Death Avenue As soon as traffic started running on the new line, accidents began occurring between trains, pedestrians, horses, and other traffic. So many fatalities occurred that 10th Avenue became known as "Death Avenue". Men on horses had to ride in front of trains waving flags. They were called the West Side Cowboys.

The West Side Improvement Project After years of public debate about these hazardous conditions and how to eliminate them, the New York Central Railroad, the City of New York, and the State of New York, came to an agreement in 1929 for the West Side Improvement Project, which included the High Line. This project as a whole was 13 miles long, eliminated 105 street-level railroad crossings, and added 32 acres to Riverside Park. It cost over $150 million in 1930 dollars—more than $2 billion in today's dollars.

The High Line ran from 35th Street down to St. John's Park Terminal, which covered four riverfront blocks between Clarkson and Spring Streets. The structure was designed to go through the center of blocks, rather than over the avenue, to avoid creating the negative conditions associated with elevated subways. It connected directly to factories and warehouses, allowing trains to roll right inside the buildings. Milk, meat, produce, and raw and manufactured goods could come and go without causing any street-level traffic.

Decline of Rail Traffic and Partial Demolition In the 1950s, the rise of interstate trucking led to a decline of rail traffic on the High Line. Parts of it were torn down in the 1960s, and trains stopped running on it in 1980, when the northern end of the structure and its easement were rerouted to accommodate construction of the Jacob Javits Convention Center. At the southern end, a five-block section of the Line was torn down in 1991, bringing the Line's southern terminus to Gansevoort Street.

The Threat of Demolition Since the mid 1980s, a group of private property owners who purchased land under the High Line at prices that reflected its easement have lobbied for demolition of the entire structure. Much credit for the fact that the High Line survived the demolition efforts in the mid- and late 1980s goes to Peter Obletz, a Chelsea resident, activist, and railroad enthusiast, who challenged demolition efforts in court and tried to reestablish rail service on the Line.

The High Line Festival In May 2007 the first annual High Line Festival took place, featuring curator and co-founder David Bowie headlining this ten-day program of movies, music, visual arts, dance, and the customary over-the-top Chelsea nightlife.

READ MORE ABOUT The High Line History

All photos taken by Steve Martinez

The starting point of the High Line entrance

from Gansevoort Street.

At its southern tip, the High Line ends abruptly at Gansevoort Street. The Whitney Museum of American Art is building a museum by Renzo Piano just to the left; the Standard New York hotel hangs overhead in the background.

Where did the name Gansevoort came from?

Peter Gansevoort was born in July 1749. He was the eldest son of prominent businessman Harmen and Magdalena Douw Gansevoort. He grew up in the family home on Market Street.

Both of Harme Gansevoort's sons followed their father in family-based business enterprises. Peter pursued processing (chiefly brewing and lumbering) and shipping operations while Leonard practiced law and moved toward public service. Like his brother, Peter was an emerging young leader on the eve of the Revolution. However, his budding career was put on hold when war broke out in 1775.

Previously holding a local militia commission, in May 1775 Peter Gansevoort was commissioned a major in the New York regiment of the Continental army. Rising to Brigadier General, he served throughout the Revolutionary war. He participated in the invasion of Canada in 1775; was promoted to Lieutenand Colonel and given command of the Third New York Regiment at Lake George in June 1776; gained reknown as the defender of Fort Stanwix in the summer of 1777; served at Saratoga, in the Mohawk Valley, and in the mid-Hudson; and was promoted to Brigadier General of the New York militia in 1781.

He was twenty-nine in January 1778 when he married Catharina Van Schaick - the daughter of an Albany merchant. Between 1779 and 1791, their six children were baptized in the Albany Dutch church. Their home was next door to his father's house on Market street and Peter took charge of the brewery following the death of his uncle,Johannes, in 1781.

After accompanying General Washington on his tour of northern battlefields in 1783, "the hero of Fort Stanwix" settled into a business life in Albany. In charge of the "Gansevoort Block" on Market Street, his economic focus was on grinding, lumbering, and sawing at the Snook or Snock Kill Falls in new Saratoga County. He had purchased the confiscated loyalist lands there at the end of the war and built a mill town there at the place now called "Gansevoort."

He caught a cold during the winter of 1811-12 which lingered for the remainder of his life. General Peter Gansevoort died in July 1812 a few days shy of his sixty-third birthday. His monument stands in Albany Rural cemetery.

Read more about Peter Gansevoort

The start and end points to access the High Line.

Hotel Gansevoort, one of New York luxury hotels, was named after the man, which is also on Gansevoort Street. On September 2005, I held my 40th birthday bash in a suite at the price of $700 a night for 100 guests, included my family. Of course, the suite could not fit all my guests! Half of them were at the rooftop Plunge lounge. $3,000 worth of drinks and food had my guests coming in and out of the suite for more! The elevators leading to the rooftop was sure busy that night.

It was a birthday soiree I will never, never forget and one of the the highlights of my life, "CINEMATIC LIMELIGHT OF JADE."

Photo credit: Spencer Platt

Original rail tracks were laid back in place and interspersed with new plantings; pathways weave between the original elaborate steel railings.

“It couldn't have happened anywhere but in little old New York.”

- O. Henry

From the High Line facing the West Side Highway, Hudson

River Park and New Jersey.

“I think that New York is not the cultural centre of America,

but the business and administrative centre of American culture.”

- Saul Bellow

"New York is like a disco, but without the music."

- Elaine Stritch

"New York is the city of rampant creativity, of abundant imagination, whether you are in advertising or the theater or the stock market. They are all fields built on imagination, the spinning of ideas and creations, of fantasy becoming reality. It is everything." - A.M. Rosenthal and Arthur Gelb

The High Line's subtle landscape design echoes the way the line looked when it was out of use: rail tracks have been put back in place, and new plantings look like the old, wild plant life. Pathways of delicate concrete ribbing are obvious new additions.

From the look of this old track, one can't help but wonders

how many track milage has it logged.

A memory of the line's wild, weedy past is part of the landscape design by firm James Corner Field Operations. “The idea was to make a place for people that didn’t destroy the very properties that made the High Line such a magical phenomenon,” says landscape architect James Corner. “A lot has to do with retaining that quality of wildness and melancholy."

"Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made, and

forgot to put a soul into." - Henry Beecher

When night time falls, the blue lights are turned on.

“The present in New York is so powerful that the past is lost.”

- John Jay Chapman

"No place has delicatessen like New York." - Judy Blume

The line widens at this section, dubbed the Sundeck; in the background the line cuts through the Chelsea Market building, creating an outdoor room that's home to a public artwork by Spencer Finch.

“When you leave New York, you ain't goin' nowhere” - Unknown

This is a great space with seats for theater and movie showcases. It also has wheelchair accessibility. Whoever designed this is brilliant!

“In Washington, the first thing people tell you is what their job is. In Los Angeles you learn their star sign. In Houston you're told how rich they are. And in New York they tell you what their rent is.” - Simon Hoggart

“Every person on the streets of New York is a type. The city is

one big theater where everyone is on display.” - Jerry Rubin

"The city is an addiction." - Timothy Leary

Cameron Diaz, in grey top and red handbag, was

spotted strolling on the NY High Line with her chums.

"I guess what I like most about NY is that it feels like home to me. I was born here in 1977 and have lived here, on and off, my whole life. I feel very connected to NY. I love how much it has to offer, though it still feels small and cozy. There are so many amazing things to see here: incredible art, just about every film, amazing music, all kinds of interesting people. I like to ride my bike on the Hudson River . I like that I can walk my dog around two blocks and he meets about 20 other dogs to play with. I like that I can get a turkey sandwich at 4 in the morning if I want to. A beautiful night out in NYC can be any night because anything can happen. It is spontaneous and surprises you all the time.” - Liv Tyler

"New York, New York, there's no place like New York.

It's the city that never sleeps. Sure, I do sleep,

I live here! Make New York your home."

- Queen Jade

"The flower is the poetry of reproduction. It is an example

of the eternal seductiveness of life."

- Jean Giraudoux

The High Line's design proposal includes four principles:

“Keep it simple; keep it wild; keep it quiet; keep it slow."

The end point of the High Line.

The High Line walkway ends at 22nd Street, Chelsea. The

development project will continue on throughout 30th Street.

"Every true New Yorker believes with all his heart that when a

New Yorker is tired of New York, he is tired of life."

- Robert Moses

"New York belongs to me, the city of opportunities,

therefore, I belongs to New York."

- Queen Jade

A wide, sunny stretch of the line features lounge chairs.

Jubil Khan, a model, poses on the lounge chair after it rained.

"I miss New York. I still love how people talk to

you on the street - just assault you and tell you what

they think of your jacket.” - Madonna

“I didn't come to New York to be a star, I brought

my star with me.” - Reggie Jackson

"The intellectual life is why I am a New Yorker. It's why I stay here. I spend my summers in Europe and when they ask me if I'm an American, I say, 'No, I'm a New Yorker.' I don't know about everyone else, but for me that's a positive statement." - Alexander Alland, Jr.

"It is often said that New York is a city for only the very rich and the very poor. It is less often said that new York is also, at least for those of us who came there from somewhere else, a city for only the very young." - Joan Didion

“Each man reads his own meaning into New York”

- Meyer Berger

"You absorb the intellectual life, the culture. Without even consciously learning from it, you are stimulated by it. It is almost a passive thing that happens. You cannot stop it." - Stephen Tim

"There is something distinctive about living in New York; over eight million other people are doing it." - Don Herold

"Living in New York City gives people real incentives to want

things that nobody else wants." - Andy Warhol

“I can't wait to get back to New York City where at least when

I walk down the streat, no one ever hesitates to tell me exactly

what they think of me.” - Ani Difranco

"The city is like poetry; it compresses all life, all races and breeds, into a small island and adds music and the accompaniment of internal engines." - E. B. White

"New York is a place where the rich walk, the poor drive

Cadillacs, and beggars die of malnutrition with thousands of

dollars hidden in their mattresses."

- Duke Ellington