More from the High Line

A few more shots from my walk along the High Line elevated park in NYC's Meatpacking and Chelsea neighborhoods

The High Line Park, New York City

A doctor's appointment-gone-wrong left me with about a hour to kill yesterday between appointments. I decided to take a walk on the High Line, a relatively new park that is a creative transformation of an abandoned elevated rail line into a beautiful open space.

Short history - the High Line was originally built in the 1930s as part of Robert Moses' West Side Improvement Plan, which eliminated dangerous at-grade railroad crossings along Manhattan's west side (which was mostly industrial) by raising the rail tracks into the air, like elevated subway lines. By the 1980s the line was abandoned and eventually became an eyesore overgrown with weeds.

These photos show just some scenes of the park itself - the creative use of the space to create seating areas, lawns, plants, trees and pedestrian paths. You'll note that there are some rails embedded into the pedestrian paths. I'm assuming these are original to the structure. For more information, including historical photos, visit The official website of the High Line and Friends of the High Line. For more information about Robert Moses, I recommend The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, by Robert Caro. It's over 1,300 pages, but it's a fascinating read

The Tombs

This is NYC's Criminal Courts Building, known as The Tombs, taken back in February of this year -  3 different exposures combined using using HDR tonemapping software. On the border of Chinatown-Civic Center, Manhattan.

New & Old NYC - MePa

Mix of old and new in the Meat Packing district (MePa). The 4-story building at the right was built probably in the late 1800s or early 1900s. The nearby Standard Hotel was built about two years ago and straddles the High Line - an abandoned elevated rail line that's been converted to an elevated park that runs for about 20 blocks on Manhattan's west side.

New & Old New York - Orchard Street Rooftops

New addition to the tenements on Orchard Street includes a roof deck/observation tower. Lower East Side, Manhattan

Colgate Clock

This clock is all that remains of the old Colgate-Palmolive headquarters (the toothpaste people)  which stood on the Jersey City waterfront across the Hudson River from downtown Manhattan. The clock lived on top of the building and faced the river and Manhattan. Colgate moved its headquarters elsewhere in the mid-1980s and Goldman Sachs built a large office tower in its place in the early 2000s. The clock was preserved and reinstalled at ground level just south of the Goldman Sachs Tower. This is at Exchange Place, Jersey City, New Jersey

New and Old NYC - 6th Ave Downtown View

Not the usual juxtaposition of new and old that I enjoy finding. These are more distant contrasts. The "old" here is the clock tower in the foreground - the Jefferson Market branch of the NY Public Library on Avenue of the Americas (6th Ave) in Greenwich Village. When built in the late 1880s it served as the Third Judicial District Courthouse. This building is on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. The "new" is in the far distance. The tallest of those new buildings is 1 World Trade Center (still under construction). The shorter building to its left is 7 World Trade Center (the only new building on the WTC site that is already completed and occupied). The building to the right of 1WTC is Trump Soho Hotel at Spring Street. Although it appears to be near the WTC site, it is actually about half-way between the World Trade Center site and the clock tower.

River Traffic - Fulton Ferry

Fulton Ferry got its name from the ferry service between Brookyn & Manhattan started by Robrert Fulton in the early 1800s, long before the Brooklyn Bridge was built. At the time it was the only way to cross the river. By the early 1920s the Brooklyn Bridge had made ferry service obsolete and it was discontinued. But Fulton Ferry lived on as the name of this waterfront Brooklyn neighborhood. Today, ferry service is once again operating between Fulton Ferry and various other neighborhoods in Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan.

Clock Tower

The clock tower at the old Met Life building near Madison Square Park, taken around sundown back in February.

FDNY Fireboat Show

Every week the Norwegian Gem cruise ship sails down the Hudson River on its way towards the Caribbean islands. Sometimes, this FDNY Fireboat joins the ship and provides a festive send off. This photo was taken in March 2012.

1 World Trade Center

I feel like I fell asleep and woke up a year later.... meanwhile... 1 World Trade Center has grown to be the tallest building in the city (for now, anyway) and it's little sister, 4 World Trade Center, has grown as well. This photo was taken 2 months ago.