The High Line

A High Line History

The High Line was originally an elevated segment of the former New York Central West Side Freight Line. This line ran from Spuyten Duyvil down to Spring Street along the Hudson River. Part of it is in a tunnel under Riverside Park. The elevated portion originally ran from 35th Street and 10th Avenue to Spring Street. The elevated portion was rerouted to emerge at 34th Street when the Javits Convention Center. The portion between Spring and Bethune Streets was torn down in the early 1960’s, and the last train on the High Line ran in 1980. The portion between Bethune and Gansevoort Streets coming down in 1993. From 37th Street to Spuyten Duyvil, the line was restored to use in 1991 as Amtrak’s West Side Connection so all of it’s trains could be routed into Penn Station, rather than Amtrak having to have some of its trains leaving from Grand Central Station. Commuter train sevice by Metro-North is also being considered.

The unused railroad became seeded with trees, flowers, etc. growing in the tracks and structure. Attempts were made to demolish the High Line, but none came to fruition. In 1999, out of these attempts was born Friends of the High Line, the non-profit which successfully fought demolition and now builds and maintains the park. Section One opened in 2009 and Section Two in 2011. Section Three (pictured in October, 2010, before work began) is now under construction. This section is also known as the Railyards, where the High Line snakes around the railyards now used by the Long Island Railroad.

A couple of then and now shots are shown below:

High Line at the current Chelsea Market
(formerly the Nabisco Baking Company)

West Side Freight Line Portion

In this set of photos, we see the non-High Line portion of the previously mentioned West Side Freight Line. On the left is an old family photo, labelled as August, 1930, showing the West Side Freight Line with the George Washington Bridge under construction in the background. This is the a scene of the segment which is now used by Amtrak, as can be seen on the right photo. This photo is a screen shot from a Youtube video. Note the George Washington Bridge in the backgorund and the structure on the right with the arches in both photos.

In this group, a locomotive is seen at 30th Street at the Railyards Section of the High Line in the left-hand photo. On the right is about the same view in October of 2011, taken with Kodak Plus X film on a tour of the Railyards Section.