Wired Mesh

The High Line

Imagine a city park 30 feet wide, 1.45 miles long, and 20 feet off the ground. That's the dream of Friends of the High Line, a preservationist group that wants to save New York City's High Line railroad track from demolition, and turn it into a Manhattan walking promenade. The Line was built in the 1930s as an elevated freight line stretching from 34th Street to the Meat Packing District. It was slowly abandoned after World War II; "the final freight train carried three carloads of frozen turkeys down the High Line in 1980." The track was scheduled to be torn down, but then someone noticed that a wildflower meadow had bloomed 20 feet above the street. Now many hope to turn the railway into New York's narrowest park.

I first heard about the High Line on an All Things Considered radio piece. I think it's the niftiest city planning idea I've heard in a long time. Pedestrian promenades can become the heart of a city (the Walnut Street Bridge here in Chatty is a great example) and I've always loved the conceit of restoring old industrial edifices to new, pastoral uses. Plus there's something unassailably cool about having a park that connects different neighborhoods.