The ribbon was cut last week on the long-awaited second section of New York City’s High Line, revealing a lush green lawn, prime lounging spots and a less industrial feel than the original stretch of the famous park built on abandoned railroad tracks 30 feet above ground. The new section ends at 30th Street, adding 10 blocks and doubling the park’s length to one mile. The first segment opened in June 2009 and runs from Gansevoort Street to 20th Street.
The park meandering through some of Manhattan’s hippest ‘hoods is already a superstar attraction with 2 million visitors a year. If you plan to be among them, here are some High Line secrets and unique features to look for, along with some history.
HISTORY: Freight traffic in the area began on street level in 1847, delivering dairy, meat and produce to factories and packing plants on the West Side near the Hudson River. The trains crashed so often with traffic — first carriages, then cars — that 10th Avenue was dubbed “Death Avenue.” Signalmen on horses waving red flags, dubbed West Side Cowboys, weren’t much help, so the tracks were elevated in 1934.
In the 1950s and ’60s, interstate trucking diminished the need for the High Line and local manufacturing slowly vanished, leaving huge brick buildings to decay amid crime, vacant lots and auto repair shops.
The last train went through in 1980, carrying three carloads of frozen turkeys. The High Line was left to the weeds until a massive rezoning effort and the nonprofit Friends of the High Line, which runs the park, turned things around. The city, which owns the property, invested $112.2 million of the $153 million cost, but Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the park has since generated $2 billion in private investment with big names like fashion’s Diane von Furstenberg and architect Frank Gehry among the pioneers. Nearby neighborhoods have been revitalized; art galleries, boutiques, eateries and hotels abound.
THE GOOGLE BRIDGE: When Google moved into space once used by Nabisco, its workers took to using an ornate steel bridge on 15th Street that connects the upper floors of two buildings. Google has since bought a 3 million-square-foot building a block away.
“This is where the young people want to come. That’s why Google is here,” Bloomberg said.
PEOPLE: The High Line’s not all about the industrial past. You can practically see into von Furstenberg’s glass penthouse dome in the shape of a diamond above her 14th Street headquarters.
The new section of the park has a residential feel as well. Marianne Boesky put up driftwood sticks along her balcony on top of her 10,000-square-foot gallery at 24th Street, like a picket fence. She has some grapevines, too.
Other neighbors include Patty Heffley, who with friends serenaded High Liners in the early months from her fourth-floor fire escape at 20th Street, where the first section ended and a locked metal gate rattled when anybody touched it. She still lives there in her $841-a-month rental, with an “Area 51” license plate in the window, but building regulations shut down her nightly Renegade Cabaret shows.
“Go home, we would say. We sometimes made jokes to people as they snapped our photos like circus animals,” said Heffley, 57, a former punk rock photographer. “It’ll be interesting to see what happens now.”
VIEWS: From the High Line you can see the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building. You might even catch a high flyer through the screen windows of the Trapeze School New York at 30th Street.
The undulating steel structure at 23rd Street is Los Angeles architect Neil Denari’s HL23, a 14-story condo tower with a relatively tiny footprint that broadens as it rises, leaning 10 feet over the High Line.
In the winter months, when the trees drop their leaves, both the East River and the Hudson are visible on the High Line at 23rd Street. David said the same is true at 14th Street.
VISITOR INFO: The High Line is gloriously free, and with the opening of the new section, evening hours will run to 11 p.m. all summer. (In winter, it closes at 8 p.m.) The High Line opens at 7 a.m. year-round. David suggests early morning visits as the best way to discover its secrets without the crowds.
