Street performer on the High Line

Meatpacking District - The High Line

The High Line is a 1.45-mile-long (2.33 km) elevated linear park, greenway and rail trail created on a former New York Central Railroad spur on the west side of Manhattan in New York City.

The park is built on a disused, southern viaduct section of the New York Central Railroad line known as the West Side Line. Originating in the Lower West Side of Manhattan, the park runs from Gansevoort Street – three blocks below 14th Street, in the Meatpacking District – through Chelsea to the northern edge of the West Side Yard on 34th Street near the Javits Center.

The West Side Line formerly extended south to a railroad terminal at Spring Street, just north of Canal Street, and north to 35th Street at the site of the Javits Center. Most of the viaduct's southern section was demolished in 1960, and the section north of 34th Street was demolished and reconfigured in 1981.

The High Line's success has inspired cities throughout the United States to redevelop obsolete infrastructure as public space.

The project has spurred real estate development in adjacent neighborhoods, increasing real-estate values and prices along the route in an example of the halo effect.

© 2016 Arlequin Photographie