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It seems that there is not another inch to build in New York, that there is no new pin in its crowded skyline . However, the city does not cease to innovate, to create, to surprise as it has shown this year with the inauguration of Hundson Yards, a neighborhood with new skyscrapers and even a staircase to nowhere, The Vessel, all built on the train tracks .
It is right in this corner of Manhattan, still in full swing, where this summer has completed the layout of another of its great urban successes, the High Line. Already with imitators here and there, this park sewn to the old tracks of the elevated train between Gansevoort Street and 34 has become in these years a must-see in the big city.
Parallel to the Hudson River, its 2.3 kilometers long throws not only great views. They are also a lesson in architecture and, above all, in the history of New York and that mania of continually transforming to the delight of its inhabitants and travelers. On this elevated and tree-lined catwalk where nature merges with art and design, about five million visitors per year already pass.
No one imagined such success twenty years ago, when Mayor Rudy Giuliani came to sign the order of his demolition . Then the train tracks had been obsolete for decades, but surely because of the proximity of the Hudson, "the breeze had been responsible for sowing the railway line by dyeing it green," says Brandon Duncan, official guide of the city of New York. The unsuspected verge pushed Joshua David and Robert Hammond to found the Friends of the High Line association to preserve it and turn it into a public space.
They saved an important piece of New York history. The High Line dates back to the 30s of the last century. "The first train that traveled these tracks did it in 1933," says Duncan. It was the city's response to the popular clamor. Because since the mid-nineteenth century, freight trains that supplied this part of lower Manhattan where slaughterhouses and meat packers were (hence the name of the Meatpacking neighborhood) had literally turned into killer machines.
"The Tenth Avenue was known as the Avenue of Death . About 540 people lost their lives run over by trains. The case of a schoolboy, specifically, who died in 1908 raised the entire neighborhood in protest." The city responded by sending the so-called West End Cowboys , agents on horseback who guarded the roads, although with little success. In 1924 he had no choice but to have the train tracks elevated.
"The construction of the elevated line cost 150 million dollars, which today would be the equivalent of 2,000 million dollars," says Duncan. And how much did it cost to create the High Line ten years ago? "We don't know. What we do know is that the city has paid less than 10 percent of the project . The rest has been provided by private patrons." Their names are not a secret. On the contrary, they appear on a plaque in the park: Von Furstenberg, Tiffany, Bloomberg, Goldman Sachs, Google ...
At ten meters high, the HighLine today has twelve stairs and five elevators that allow you to reach the urban park. The best way to enjoy it is by wandering around. Never has a straight line brought such surprises. Designed by landscape designer James Corner , Diller Scofidio + Renfro studio and garden designer Piet Oudolf , the High Line also conquers because it offers a different perspective of the city.
If we start in the south, the balcony of Gansevoort St. is our access point. It is right next to the Whitney Museum which, incidentally, offers from its terraces an insurmountable perspective of the park. Of the whole city, really.
The first meters of the catwalk throw the first contrasts: from one of the last meat products plants of this neighborhood so fashionable today to the mass of the Standard hotel , whose beer garden has become one of the must in the area.
Soon the video projectors arrive under bridges, art installations , foot baths where children and adults are soaked in summer, viewpoints, amphitheaters and wooden furniture where to lie. Duncan points out the places where the original roads have been preserved and the deliberate mixing of weeds with other plants that give it this unique appearance.
The High Line passes over the famous Chelsea Market , the former Nabisco factory (the cradle of Oreo cookies), turned into a foodie temple; The flagship store of the designer Diane von Furstenberg also appears, a key figure in the financing of the park and in attracting other fashion brands to the neighborhood; There is also the prestigious Milk photography gallery ...
And strolling among works of art and imagining who lives in the luxurious houses on one side and another of the railroad appears that overwhelming real estate project that is Hudson Yards. There the High Line twists to the right on the section called the Spur, and to the left, to surround the garages of the Long Island Railroad (LIRR) trains. "By 2024, 16 new skyscrapers will have been built here," explains Jared, also an official New York guide.
"Thirteen of the 16 will be built on gigantic steel platforms that cover the tracks of the LIRR. It is, as this guide says, a" marvel of engineering . "And a genius of design, if you look at The Vessel , the spiral stairs created by Thomas Heatherwick And of the architecture, if we raise our heads towards 30 Hudson Yards , the skyscraper that will open an outdoor observatory on the 101st floor , the tallest in the city.
It is also a gift for the High Line, which begins in the desired Meatpacking, a mecca for trend seekers, and ends in this real estate bombshell by Hundson Yards. The question fits, will the elevated park die successfully?
PRACTICAL GUIDE
Drop down
Guided visit. New York Tours One offers a guided tour of the High Line and another of Hudson Yards that are included in the SightSeeingPass tourist card offer , which includes admission to more than 100 attractions in the city.
More information on the official New York Tourism website: www.nycgo.com
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