The High Line

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From Fodor's: If you think New York is too crazy-busy, the High Line on Manhattan’s West Side provides the perfect antidote to crowded sidewalks, honking taxis, and the go-go-go mentality. At this masterful revival of an old, elevated freight rail line, a beautifully designed pathway wanders for 1.45 miles between Gansevoort Street and W. 30th Street amid trees, gardens, and flowering plants, enticing you to slow down and take it all in. Along the way, you’re treated to unique perspectives on the surrounding neighborhoods’ architecture—it passes through cool Chelsea and the glam Meatpacking District. Locals and visitors alike also enjoy a host of inspiring events, art exhibitions, performances, and docent-led tours.
A couple of highlights along the route include:

Chelsea Market: Most of the 22 buildings you see around 14th and 15th Streets were built for the National Biscuit Company.

This is where trains brought butter, flour, sugar and shortening to create the Saltines, Oreos, Fig Newtons, Vanilla Wafers, Barnum’s Animal Crackers, and Mallomars. According to legend, the Oreo was invented right here. In 1959, Nabisco moved operations to Fair Lawn NJ, precipitating a decline in the area's commercial real estate.




Today, the complex, anchored by Chelsea Market, features a shopping mall, an urban food outlet, television productions facilities and office shopping mall, urban food outlet, television production facilities and offices, including Oxygen and the Food Network (Emeril Live) as well as offices for Major League Baseball (MLB) and Google.






The Kitchen, 512 West 19th Street, the first building on your left on the south side of the street, is a non-profit art and performance space. The organization began in 1971 and takes its name from its original location: the kitchen of the Mercer Arts Center, where video artists showed their work.

Though the organization was originally established to display the work of video artists, it expanded to include all kinds of art and performance. They focus primarily on local and emerging artists whose work is experimental in nature. Alumni of The Kitchen include Phillip Glass and Brian Eno, and The Beastie Boys gave an early performance there in 1983.

When the organization moved to its current location in 1986 it was considered a bold and slightly odd choice, given that the neighborhood at the time was primarily auto repair shops. The New York Times said of the move, “This neighborhood will be the next SoHo.” (Prophetic, NY Times!)




London Terrace Apartments: This massive apartment complex to your right on the other side of 10th Avenue was once the largest in the world. Construction began in 1929 on this complex, which includes about 1700 apartments and an Olympic-sized swimming pool. The project was headed by Henry Mandel, and he selected the location for its proximity to Midtown Manhattan. He wanted to create modestly priced housing for white collar workers. He met resistance, however, in the form of Tillie Hart.




Tillie was living in a subleased house that she insisted she had the right to be in until May of 1930. The underlying lease for the house has expired, so Mandel has legal rights to the property. Still, Tillie Hart refused to budge. The construction advanced and all of the houses around hers were demolished. Tillie held firm. She barricaded herself inside and fended off intruders by throwing bricks and stones at them. In October of 1929, the police entered her house and moved all of her possessions to the sidewalk out front. She slept inside on the bare floor. The next day she gave in and moved out. Her house was demolished and the cornerstone for the London Terrace Apartments was laid. Tillie Hart maybe got a moment of satisfaction, however, when Henry Mandel, the man who had torn down her house, ended up ruined by his building project. The building, which had cost $25,000,000 to build, fell into default by 1933. Mandel declared personal bankruptcy with debts of $14,000,000 (about $220 million adjusted for today’s inflation.)




US Mail Distribution Center: This is where most of New York’s mail is processed. In 2001 this center had a serious scare when it processed mail that had been laced with anthrax, causing a panic in New York. Though the building is a little worse for wear on the outside, the rooftop has had quite a makeover and is one of the largest green rooftops in New York City. The Distribution Center sits where the Hudson Railroad Depot used to be. The Hudson Railroad controlled the lines that went down the west side of Manhattan, and the west side tracks used to be used for both passenger and freight trains.






When Cornelius Vanderbilt bought all of the rail lines in New York, including the Hudson, the west side tracks were designated as “freight only.” This was because he wanted all passenger lines to go through the new terminal at 42nd St: Grand Central Depot. Before this switch, however, the Hudson Railroad Depot at 30th Street had a very famous visitor. On February 15, 1861, Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln disembarked at the Hudson Depot for his first visit to New York City as the President of the United States. He was greeted by cheering crowds. Four years later, on April 25, 1865, mourners accompanied Lincoln’s body, which has lain in state at City Hall the day before, to the 30th Street Depot for the beginning of a cross-country trip that would bring Lincoln back to his hometown of Springfield, IL.








Sounds like a good way to spend part of a day and find something good to eat!

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