The High Line 🇺🇸

The High Line is a 1.45-mile (2.33 km) elevated linear park and greenway located on the West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Constructed along a former elevated viaduct of the New York Central Railroad, the park runs from Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District, through the Chelsea neighborhood, to 34th Street near the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. Inspired by Paris's Coulée verte, the park was designed through a partnership involving James Corner Field Operations, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and Piet Oudolf, who repurposed the industrial rail structure into a multi-disciplinary living system.

The underlying railway was originally built as part of the West Side Improvement Project to eliminate dangerous street-level train crossings that had earned Tenth and Eleventh Avenues the nickname "Death Avenue." The elevated structure carried its first train in 1933, but an eventual decline in rail traffic led to its abandonment in 1980. In 1999, community advocates Joshua David and Robert Hammond established the nonprofit organization Friends of the High Line to campaign for the site's preservation. Redevelopment began in 2006, leading to phased openings in 2009, 2011, and 2014, followed by extensions including the Spur in 2019 and the Moynihan Connector in 2023.

Landscape architect Piet Oudolf curated the park's naturalistic plantings, drawing inspiration from the wild vegetation that grew over the abandoned trackbeds. About 400 plant species and roughly 100,000 individual specimens are featured, including resilient meadow plants, sumac, smokebush, and birch groves. Concrete walkways with tapered edges allow greenery to intermingle with paving, while original rail tracks are preserved throughout the layout. The park relies on organic lawn management and sustainable practices, supporting local fauna such as native bees, butterflies, and migratory birds.

Walking along the route reveals a series of distinct architectural features and public spaces. Starting at the Tiffany and Co. Foundation Overlook and Gansevoort Woodland, the path passes beneath The Standard, High Line hotel and through Chelsea Market. Highlights along the viaduct include a sundeck, the Diller-Von Furstenberg Water Feature, the Tenth Avenue Square amphitheater, and the Philip Falcone and Lisa Maria Falcone Flyover. At the Tenth Avenue Spur, visitors can view rotating art exhibits on the Plinth or walk through the high-ceilinged Coach Passage.

The park is open daily from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. during the warmer months and until 8:00 p.m. in winter. Visitors can enter via eleven access points along the route, five of which offer elevators alongside stairs for wheelchair accessibility. Additional street-level access is available at 34th Street. The Moynihan Connector provides a pedestrian link to Moynihan Train Hall using the timber Warren truss bridge and the V-shaped Woodlands Bridge over 30th Street.

The High Line in pictures