The High Line: Finding Beauty in the Ugly of New York City

As summer is dawning to a close, I am sitting here thinking about the island vacation I took in June with a friend. Mornings spent at outdoor cafes eating a leisurely breakfast and that lazy Saturday afternoon lounging on deck chairs without a care in the world. The sun felt great as it warmed my skin and the view across the water was beautiful. Sure, the island was Manhattan, water was the murky Hudson river, and the view was Hoboken, but in some strange way, it was all beautiful from atop the High Line. Finding beauty in views of New Jersey starts with a story of the High Line Railway which, some could argue, was ugly itself until recently.

The High Line is an elevated railroad track running about one and a half miles above Manhattan's Chelsea and West Village neighborhoods. Originally built in the 1930's as a way to bring livestock directly to the slaughter houses of the Meatpacking District, the High Line was in use as a railroad until 1980 when meatpacking facilities began to move out of Manhattan forced out by rising property values. Rising above New York City streets like a giant steel snake, the High Line railroad was the final journey for hundreds of thousands of cattle piled into hot, uncomfortable railroad cars. Their often treacherous journey would end at one of the area's slaughterhouses and at the end of a butcher's knife. Now I am not a vegetarian by any stretch of the imagination, even though one of my vegetarian friends had turned me on to some great soy ribs (I love them), but thinking about the ugliness that must have occurred in these slaughterhouses coupled with the ugliness of a giant steel above ground railroad in Manhattan, it's hard to believe that it's become something beautiful.

By the 1990's, the High Line, while structurally sound, had become overgrown and derelict. The Giuliani administration in fact had slated to tear down the eyesore as one of their priorities. Inspired by the beauty of Paris' Promenade plantée, two local residents sought to change the Mayor's plan and formed Friends of the High Line society with the goal of saving the High Line and transforming it in to an elevated public park.

I first learned of the plans to turn the High Line into a park, and even the High Line itself during a trip to the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) in New York several years ago. There was an exhibit about the High Line and a model of the proposed park. It was beautiful, inspiring, and absurd. A railway turned into a park complete with paths, landscaping, and even deck chairs with wheels that actually rolled along parts of the existing railway tracks was a grand, only in New York idea that I was sure I had heard the last of... at least that is what I thought.

In the weeks leading up to my June trip, I saw coverage of the opening of the first part of the High Line park! Mayor Bloomberg was there celebrating the occasion with various other important looking New York politician types. I will have to check it out when I am there I thought to myself.

Well, during my four day trip, I walked the length of the High Line park four times with my friend. It was amazing! Portions of the old tracks remain along with paths, benches, and landscaping that use plants "native" to the High Line (those that spouted up in the 1980s and 1990s). My friend and I played a game of cat and mouse with other visitors on those visits to get side by side deck chairs and, on Saturday afternoon, we were successful! To our left was two girls in bikinis, one with a laptop, and the other with suntan lotion. On our right were tourists like us who had presumably stumbled on the beauty of the High Line without being prepared. Next time, I will be prepared. Maybe I will bring a book, a picnic lunch, or an extra large Pinkberry yogurt from the nearby Chelsea location. Actually, it's not "that" nearby, but hey, it's Pinkberry, so it's worth the walk. And too, the High Line is worth the walk to discover how something that was ugly is now so beautiful and how, in its strange way, makes even Hoboken look beautiful from its elevated vistas.