I first walked the Manhattan High Line after the third phase of its opening in November, 2016. I’d read about the urban greenway and trail that had been developed on the former New York Central Railroad spur on Manhatten’s lower west side in Rails to Trails magazine. Despite its short length (1.45miles) and narrow width, it nonetheless provides a walkable, elevated greenspace above the city.
It took a few minutes for us to find the steps in Hell’s Kitchen that sunny November morning. The streets were quiet and the trail even quieter. Granted it was early on a Sunday morning, but how atypical of Manhattan to enjoy a quiet stroll on a beautiful fall day without hordes of people.
The vegetation along the trail was bursting with color and the foliage on the trees along the Hudson was in peak fall bloom. A few sailboats skitted by as their owners eeked out a last few days of the boating season before the weather turned.
As we approached Chelsea, we immediately understood and appreciated the reason for our crowdless stroll on the High Line. The New York City Marathon was in progress; people crowded the streets along the route cheering on the runners, a more important activity than walking the trail. Thank you New Yorkers!
Fast forward almost three years later to a warm, cloudless summer Saturday morning in Manhanttan, perfect weather to walk the High Line. A few months earlier, a new spur had opened that connected the recently completed Hudson Yards to the main trail, so we planned to investigate it and a new nearby contemporaty art plaza, the High Line Plinth. Before entering the trail, we stopped at Chelsea Market intending to get a coffee to enjoy on our stroll; the market was packed with people and we could hardly move, let alone maneuver to the end of the long coffee shop queue. This was a foreshadowing of the company we would have on the trail! No distractions today to keep people off the High Line!
Forgoing the coffee, we climbed the steps single file to the High Line, slowly making our way to the 10th Street overlook for our first elevated view of the city.
The southern end of the High Line is narrow and with so many people, we found ourselves walking two abreast in a snaking processional. This worked reasonably well until someone stopped, disrupting the flow of pedestrians.
Guiltily, I was one of those flow disrupters! Stopping to photgraph the different sculptures depicting LOVE in front of a condo complex bordering the greenway, I zigzagged to the other side of the trail scattering walkers on both the left and right!
Fortunately, the trail widened and separated as we approached Hudson Yards, dispersing some of the crowd. When I last walked the High Line in 2016, construction was in process on Hudson Yards, a $20 billion commercial and residential complex billed as the US’s ‘biggest ever private real estate deal’. The Eastern Yard, consisting of eight buildings, was finished last year, and includes residential and commerical skyscrapers, public gardens, a large shopping mall and a cultural center. A second phase of the project, the Western Yard, with another six buildings, has a planned completion date of 2025. One can’t help but be impressed by the massive scale of Hudson Yards. What’s even more interesting is that the development is built around and above a functioning railyard.
Visible from the trail, sandwiched between two buildings on the outdoor plaza in front of the shopping mall, is a sixteen story structure of interconnected staircases, referred to as the Vessel.
The Vessel is a somewhat controversial. Intended as an interactive sculpture, people climb this 150 foot structure after getting free timed tickets from a kiosk in the adjacent mall. Detractors call this a shameless ploy to entice tourists and locals to patronize the mall; others say the sculpture is an architectual misfit. Nonetheless, hundreds of people were climbing the Vessel and when we tried to get tickets, none were available for the remainder of the day. So instead we browsed the mall (which we probably would have done anyway without the Vessel, although we might have killed more time there if we had gotten tickets!) and stopped in a tea shop for a brew and rest.
Refreshed, we continued our High Line walk on the final section of the trail that parallels the Hudson River. Smaller crowds, beautiful views and a slight breeze made for a more pleasant experience.
Tour boats, ferries and an assortment of private sailboats and yachts cruised the river. We paused to watch this continuous cavalcade of vessels stream past through an opening in the trees.
We retraced our steps to visit the Plinth, a section of the new spur that exhibits contemporary art. Since opening, Simone Leigh’s sixteen foot bronze bust of a black women, titled Brick House, is featured in the plaza and will remain for 18 months before a new work rotates in. The piece’s name compares the stength, endurance and integrity of strong black women, to that of a house of bricks. The torso of the sculpture represents both a bodice and a house, reinforcing the theme of strength, endurance and integrity. Much to our delight, the plaza was empty and shaded, giving us a few minutes to peacefully enjoy both the art and a rest.
Not surprising, the High Line has become a major Manhattan attraction. Over 8 million people walked the elevated greenway in 2019, 3 million more than the year before. Yes, the High Line can get very crowded, but it is the diversity of people – parents wheeling children in strollers, caretakers pushing seniors in wheelchairs, couples strolling arm in arm, friends logging their steps – that makes this an authentic New York experience and a worthwhile way to spend a gorgeous day in Manhattan!