The New York High Line: Park in the Sky

Improbable Journey: The story of New York’s High Line [video]

"How CSX helped turn an abandoned rail line in the heart of Manhattan’s Meatpacking District into one of the country’s most unique parks"

Mother Nature Network

"Railroad lines criss-crossing the country move freight, delivering everything from coal to cars. But one rail line running above the streets on Manhattan’s West Side moves your soul, delivering sanctuary amid coneflower and pink evening primrose.

"The High Line, a deteriorating elevated rail line turned iconic city park, moves closer to completion with the recent donation of the third and final section of the High Line by CSX Transportation, Inc.

The first two sections offer a mile walk along a lush, meadow-like setting from Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District to West 34th Street, between 10th and 11th avenues. ... The last section, expected to begin construction later this year, runs for one-half mile north of the current park."

High Line: The Inside Story of
New York City’s Park in the Sky
by Josh David and Robert Hammond
Farrar, Straus and Giroux Paperbacks - October 2011
(Click above for Review)


"The High Line: The Inside Story of New York City’s Park in the Sky is part diary, part 'how-to' guide, and part detective story – albeit one whose outcome we know as soon as we look at the cover. 

"I found it fascinating to read, even though I already knew a fair bit about the process by which the High Line was created.

"The preface’s first sentence, a journalist’s quote describing Joshua David and Robert Hammond as 'A pair of nobodies who undertook [an] impossible mission' (and I would add, succeeded beyond their wildest dreams) really captures this unlikely tale.

"... What the High Line story makes clear is the critical juncture that is reached, when grassroots causes actually triumph, are embraced by the powers that be, and begin down the path of all complex public projects."
[Not that Barnet is listening.]