New York’s High Line

A couple of weeks ago I attended a conference in New York.

While there  I made sure to allow time for a garden stroll through High Line.

High Line  is a new public park built on a former  1.45-mile-long elevated rail structure running several city blocks from Gansevoort Street to West 34th Street on Manhattan’s West Side.  A pathway guides the visitor through the park, but its many  shrubs, grasses, and perennials create the charm of this park.

It was a late afternoon when I arrived. The sun heated the area below on the street, but when I took the steps up, I could feel a cool breeze. Then I knew I would like this garden.

What I noticed immediately was that many people were there. Some strolling the walkway, others sitting on the many bences throughout the park.

Public parks took off in America in the late nineteenth century. The most famous, Central Park, also in New York, was the design of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux.

Earlier Olmsted had traveled to England to see the picturesque parks there, including Birkenhead, designed by Joseph Paxton.  The English picturesque park style with its broad vistas, the extensive lawn,  the water, the walkways, and especially the trees, contributed to his design for Central Park.

The pathways of High Line, a new form of public park in New York, led me on a springtime walk I will not soon forget.

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