High Line, New York

The High Line park is built on a disused, southern viaduct section of the New York Central Railroad line known as the West Side Line. 

Because of declining usage, the railway viaduct was effectively abandoned in 1980.

Re-purposing the railway into an urban park began in 2006, the first segment was opened in 2009, second in 2011, and the final in September 2014.

The park is open daily from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and in the winter, until 10 p.m.

You can enter the park through eleven entrances, five of which are accessible to people with disabilities. 

The park is safe with a lot of visitors.

The park garden is designed by Piet Oudolf, influential Dutch garden designer.

It looks so natural and it seems that the old plants that grew between the rail tracks were preserved.

We entered the park from Gansevoort Street, between 10th and 12th Avenues.

The High Line is 2.3 km long. It took us more than an hour until the end of the line.

There you can visit the amazing Whitney museum of American Art.

The indoor food hall called Chelsea Market is located east of the High Line at 75, Ninth Avenue. There you can make a stop for a quick bite.

At the end of the line you can find an amazing bowling place called Lucky Strike. We didn’t played bowling because we wanted to go and visit Central Park later, but we stopped just to cool down with a glass of milkshake.

The view from the High Line is amazing, especially towards the Hudson River.

You can watch the helicopters taking off and landing.

New York banned helicopters from landing on rooftop helipads after a disaster in 1977 involving a helicopter atop the Pan Am Building.

Today, helicopters come and go from three heliports on the island’s periphery, carrying business travelers, government officials and tourists.

State air traffic rules restrict flight over congested areas to 1,000 feet above the highest obstacle within a horizontal radius of 2,000 feet from the aircraft.

There are a lot of beautiful residence buildings by the High Line.

There you can admire so many amazing samples of modern architecture and innovations regarding the construction materials.

I really wonder how these people who live in these apartments feels about so many tourists walking by their windows and taking photos around.

Most of the apartments didn’t even had the curtains, so everybody was able to see how they were decorated.

I wonder how much would cost to have apartment like this by the High Line.

This was not so strange to me, because I live in the Netherlands, and the Dutch people also have their house windows open to the public eyes.

Even though we visited the park early in the morning, there were already a lot of visitors.

On the High Line you can also admire some art installations and amazing murals on the walls of the nearby buildings.

You can see some walls of the old railway station preserved as an art installation in the park.

There are a few spots made as balcony above the streets, from where you can watch the traffic from above through the glass walls.

Bicycles, skateboards, skates and scooters and dogs were not allowed in the park.

There is also a place where you can grab ice-cream, a cup of coffee or buy some souvenirs from the local artists.

Like all the parks of New York, High Line Park is a small oasis between the skyscrapers that can provide a nice place in the shadow to rest your body and your soul from the stressful life in a big city.

We stepped down from the High Line in order to visit the Vessel TKA.

Unfortunately the line was so huge and the temperature was so high so we decided to skip this experience.

In general the Vessel is an extraordinary centerpiece of Hudson Yards, meant to be climbed.

This interactive artwork was imagined by Thomas Heatherwick and Heatherwick Studio as a focal point where people can enjoy new perspectives of the city and one another from different heights, angles and vantage points.

The Vessel is made of bronzed steel and concrete. Interesting thing is that the stairs are covered by mirrored bronzed steel from under.

Therefore if you look from an angle all the people who walk on the stairs looks like they are walking upside down, because their images were mirrored on the upstairs stairs bottom.

The Shed building is an art and performance space that had become the latest spectacle along New York’s High Line. 

The white polymer shell above the building can be moved in order to expand the building further and give the amazing covered, adaptable and expandable cultural venue for the events.

In the video above you can see how the Shed’s movable shell becomes a kind of aesthetic and functional kinetic sculpture.

Right next to the Vessel and Shed is the famous Hudson Yards shopping mall.

In this interesting music video I found on YouTube you can take a good view of the Vessel and the Hudson Yards in general.

I just left New York a week ago and I already miss this beautiful city. I wish I can go back very soon. Therefore while watching the video above I’m singing along ” Before I love you na na na I’m gonna leave you na na na … ”

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