High Line-Elevated NYC Park-Rail Trail
Directions
Driving not recommended.
Access points are at: Gansevoort Street, West 14th Street (elevator access), West 16th Street (elevator access), West 18th Street, West 20th Street, West 23rd Street (elevator access), West 26th Street, West 28th Street, and West 30th Street (elevator access), 11th Avenue (at 30th Street), 34th Street.
Bus Directions
For public transportation information (NYC subway and bus lines) use link under Contact Information. If traveling across the Hudson River from New Jersey, the nearest PATH stations are at Christopher Street or 14th Street.
Train Directions
For public transportation information (NYC subway and bus lines) use link under Contact Information. If traveling across the Hudson River from New Jersey, the nearest PATH stations are at Christopher Street or 14th Street.
Park Overview
Elevated NYC rails-to-trail park with city views on the lower west side of Manhattan. "Not since Central Park opened in 1857 has a park reshaped New Yorkers’ thinking about public space and the city more profoundly." (New York Times, 9/20/2014)
Trail Overview
The view of the High Line looking upward at its southern terminus from the street at Gansevoort and Washington appears like a cut of meat chopped with a cleaver. A sheer glass wall looms thirty feet overhead; the design seems intended to remind the viewer this is the historic Meatpacking District. Fittingly, according to park docents the very last train to travel the High Line delivered a shipment of frozen turkeys. Much has changed, May 2015 the Whitney Museum of American Art opened a massive new extension (designed by Renzo Piano) snuggled up next to the High Line at this location.
There is much to see along the initial one mile walkway – from striking views of the distant Hudson River and iconic Manhattan buildings poking skyward, to gorgeous landscapes at your feet. Before heading north from the Gansevoort Street entrance it is worth turning back towards the “meat chop” terminus to experience the view. The High Line passes north through a series of beautiful gardens and unique features, including Gansevoort Woodland, the Sundeck and Water Feature (a shallow linear wading pool), Chelsea Market Passage, Chelsea Grasslands, Seating Steps, Wildflower Field and the Radical Bench.
- 10th Avenue Square (between West 17th and West 18th streets) features bleachers that descend through original girders ending with a framed view looking up 10th Avenue. The installation is wheelchair accessible by zigzagging down the rows of bleachers.
- This place in particular reveals original art-deco steel side railings; but they are present throughout the park especially when a section is viewable from the street level. Commonplace round railing were used where the public could not see the original viaduct from the street.
- At 26th Street a viewing spur includes seating facing the street with a large frame that recalls the billboards that blocked the views to the west before the elevated rail viaduct was transformed into a park. The frame is empty, allowing park visitors to view people on the street, and allowing park goers to be seen from the street.
- The park currently ends, or starts, at West 34th Street between 11th Avenue and Westside Highway at the Hudson Yards.
The landscape design itself includes much of the original wild self-seeded plant life and flora that used to naturally inhabit the abandoned corridor – some 300 species of perennials, grasses, shrubs, and trees. The Friends of the Highline web site contains a Bloom List updated by the season. For a printable walkway map use the Web Map link on this (or the Friends web site).
- The deck along the High Line corridor was created from a series of smooth, tapered concrete planks laid in a linear fashion, suggestive of railroad tracks. The walkway flows variously from side to side or into the center or can cover the full deck; it can be narrow, or divided into parallel paths, or become as wide as 60 feet (at 10th Avenue Square). At the Falcone Flyover (between West 25th and West 26th streets) the narrow walkway is elevated above the rail bed which carries visitors through a canopy of sumac and magnolia trees.
- Throughout the park original rail tracks can be seen; more than a third of them have been re-installed. In some places the tracks are embedded in the pathway, in others hidden among various plantings and vegetation.
- After sunset sections of the pathway glow from LED light bars installed low to the ground (and under benches), making possible stellar views of the Manhattan skyline from 30 feet above ground with no overhead lights. Perhaps it needs to be said, the crime rate on the High Line is very low.
Joshua David and Robert Hammond, Co-Founders of Friends of the High Line, were interviewed on NPR's "All Things Considered" on September 3, 2011. The audio tour begins at the corner of Gansevoort and Washington streets. The link includes two versions -- 80 minutes and 12 minutes -- you will need to scan the page to locate them.
Park Description
High Line - Elevated NYC Park-Rail Trail
From 1934 to 1980 an elevated rail line, now called the High Line, connected the rail yards of mid-town Manhattan to an industrial district along the lower West Side of Manhattan. Constructed 30 feet above the ground, it avoided dangerous street crossings, and routed between 10th and 11th streets in its more northern sections the railway avoided association with the unpopular elevated sections of New York's subway system.
After much controversy and considerable effort -- this is New York City -- the High Line opened an initial segment to the public (from Gansevoort Street to West 20th Street) in June 2009. Section 2, extending the walkway to West 30th Street, was opened two years later. Completed in September 2014, the third and final section loops around the Hudson Yards located between West 30th and West 34th Streets. The aerial greenway now measures 1.45 miles.
More than 2M people visited the High Line during its first year; as of September, 2014, the number had grown to 5M per year.
The High Line is part of the New York City Parks & Recreation Department, but is managed by the Friends of the High Line (use Contact Information on this site).
From June 1 to September 30 it is open 7:00am to 11:00pm daily. Check the Friend’s web site for hours in other seasons (opening time is 7:00am throughout the year).