The High Line

This weekend I came to New York City to visit several friends who live here. Saturday was a delightfully crisp and sunny spring day, and Angie indulged my desire to take a walk along the High Line--a unique park on Manhattan's West Side.

The High Line "is a public park built on an historic freight rail line elevated above the streets" (from the website). (Read more about its interesting history on the park's website, and in this National Geographic article.) It runs from Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District to West 34th Street, between 10th & 11th Avenues. Staircases and elevators every few blocks give access to the park, which is a combination of railroad tracks (like those on the right), grasses, trees, flowers, and open, wood-planked seating areas.

The High Line is not the type of park you go to for a family picnic where you let the kids run wild, but it is an innovative, creative concept in urban landscaping and design. We saw families meandering along with their strollers, couples walking hand-in-hand, singletons enjoying a book on rustic-looking benches, and even MERYL STREEP walking arm-in-arm and apparently deep in conversation with a close friend. Yes, we saw Meryl Streep walking along the High Line!

Here's a smattering of photos of the views from and of the High Line:

Funky modern-art birdhouses and feedeers, where people leave half-fruit offerings to entice the birds to come visit

Looking north, towards Chelsea, in a narrow corridor of the park that runs between two buildings

This is a close-up of the branches of the tree in the photo above, whose soft pussy willows were seeding and molting--both enchanting and a little strange-looking

Wonderful self-portrait of Angie and me at the northern end of the park

View of the city, looking northward up 8th Avenue (?), from somewhere in the middle, I think

Yours truly with the Hudson River in the background

This was the scene near where we entered the park, between West 16th and 17th Streets. This section is more of a boardwalk with big wooden lounge chairs on one side where people were sunning themselves like at the beach.

The High Line is definitely a New York experience, and a terrific way to spend a sunny spring afternoon.