Saturday scenes and scenery: On the High Line

Spring came in mid-March to New York City while I was visiting there ten days ago. So we hied ourselves to one of the city's newer attractions, the High Line.



What's that? I had heard rumors. City dwellers had taken over an abandoned elevated rail line, planted gardens between the tracks -- finally gotten the government to develop their find officially. And so, in 2009, a new park opened up in the air in Manhattan above 10th Ave between Gansevoort Street and w. 20th St.


Who would have thought that an elevated rail track running among old warehouse could be such an attractive place to walk.


Or to gather in the sun.

According to the park's website the railroad had been originally installed to correct a traffic hazard.

The High Line was built in the 1930s, as part of a massive public-private infrastructure project called the West Side Improvement. It lifted freight traffic 30 feet in the air, removing dangerous trains from the streets of Manhattan's largest industrial district. No trains have run on the High Line since 1980.

Now it floats over the traffic below.


Above, construction workers raising a new building look down on the promenade.