Personally, I find High Line Park to be a most unique place, even in a city like New York, which literally has everything. 

As a civil engineer and transportation history buff, I must confess to being a bit more disposed to fascination with this reuse of an abandoned elevated rail line.  But this park is truly fascinating for many reasons, be it great vistas of the Manhattan skyline and the Hudson River, or the convergence of adaptive reuse and historic preservation in a linear park.

And simply put, who expects a park 30 feet above the street?

It’s a most innovative approach to adding significant open space in a crowded urban environment:  think the 3rd dimension!
 
The High Line was an elevated fright rail line built in the 1930s to replace tracks that ran in the Westside streets.  But the coming of the interstate highways in the 1950s and 1960s marked the shifting of freight traffic from trains to trucks, and the death of the High Line.  Saved from the wrecker’s ball by the dedication of advocates such as The Friends of the High Line and others, a park was born.

What I find most interesting is the design – an amazing blending of two forms I love, yet are contrary: industrial and naturalist design.  The park retains the heavy steel structure, the railings, and even restores the tracks.  But weaving around the tracks are walkways, benches, and planting masses. Perhaps inspired by the wildflowers that grew unaided between the abandoned rails, the landscape design brings back intense plantings employing a beautiful palate of wildflowers.

Visit the Friends of the High Line’s web site web site: http://www.thehighline.org/. 

Then, when in Manhattan, make sure you visit the park itself!

Rachy B.