ArtBistro

News >> Browse Articles >> Design

News >> Browse Articles >> Fine Art

News >> Browse Articles >> Graphic Design

News >> Browse Articles >> Interior Design

Manhattan's Newest Greenway Provides An Elevated Perspective

STEPHEN DUNN / HARTFORD COURANT / October 1, 2009

New York, NY – The best new park in the Big Apple isn’t for baseball, and it won’t cost you a dime to visit.

The High Line floats magically over Manhattan’s once-gritty Meatpacking District, an unexpected carpet of trees, grass, flowers and rusty rails three stories above the street. You won’t find a more interesting or accessible path to stroll along in New York City.

A narrow, serpentine greenway built on a 1930s-era elevated rail line, the High Line runs nine blocks, but there are plans for it to grow to a mile and a half. It’s a walk into city history, starting with19th-century wrought-iron and low-rise New York and the still operating meatpacking companies and extending to the trendiest new architecture popping up in Lower Manhattan.

Since we planned our short visit to the city around the High Line, it seemed logical to stay literally on top of it. We splurged on a night at the just-opened Standard Hotel, a so-cool-we-don’t-need-a-sign place that dramatically straddles the High Line, perched on concrete stilts.

Popular Links

Nine Steps to Become a Designer ArtBistro Scholarships
Improve your life. Get a degree.

The Standard delivered, from the tattooed bellhops to the lounge crowded with high-heeled Europeans to the friendly, courteous staff.

Our room, about $220 with taxes (booked online), looked out on both the High Line and the Empire State Building, still a treat to watch at night. The room also featured a glass-walled shower that overlooked our bed. My wife and I probably neglected the full visual benefits of this, but we were in town for the High Line, not to watch each other lather up.

The plan was a quick 24 hours at the old rail line, which was built to handle the neighborhood’s bustling meat and cookie industry, and to stop an alarming number of fatalities from street-level trains. On this New York outing, there would no Broadway shows, no museums, expensive restaurants or SoHo shopping.

The idea was to walk, eat cheap and open our eyes to a New York City we had never seen.