High Line

The High Line is a 1.45-mile-long elevated linear park built on a historic freight rail structure on Manhattan's West Side, running from Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District to 34th Street at Hudson Yards. Since opening its first section in 2009, it has become one of the most visited attractions in New York City, drawing approximately 8 million visitors annually.

The elevated rail line was originally built in the 1930s as part of the West Side Improvement Project, which lifted freight trains off the dangerous street-level tracks along Tenth and Eleventh Avenues (known as Death Avenue due to frequent pedestrian fatalities). The last train ran on the High Line in 1980, carrying frozen turkeys to a meatpacking warehouse.

After decades of abandonment, during which a wild landscape of grasses, wildflowers, and self-seeded trees colonized the elevated structure, community activists Joshua David and Robert Hammond founded Friends of the High Line in 1999 to advocate for its preservation and transformation into public space, saving it from planned demolition.

The park was designed by landscape architecture firm James Corner Field Operations and architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro, who drew inspiration from the wild landscape that had claimed the abandoned railway. The design integrates original rail tracks into a carefully orchestrated sequence of gardens, walkways, seating areas, and viewing platforms that frame views of the city and the Hudson River.

The High Line's success has had an enormous economic impact on surrounding neighborhoods, catalyzing billions of dollars in real estate development and transforming the Meatpacking District and West Chelsea into some of Manhattan's most expensive areas. This effect has generated both celebration and criticism, with some arguing the park accelerated gentrification and displacement.

Public art has been central to the High Line's identity from the beginning, with a rotating program of commissions by both established and emerging artists. The park's global influence on urban design has been profound, inspiring similar rail-to-park conversions in cities around the world and demonstrating that abandoned infrastructure can become a city's most beloved public space.