NYC’s High Line Park Trivia

As the weather gets nice, The Big Adventure wanted to drop some knowledge on you about arguably the most interesting, scenic and remarkably popular park in the New York City: The High Line. Built purely from community interest and some dedicated souls, we’re eager to get back down to the Chelsea/ West Village/ Meat Packing District sections of town to walk the walk this summer. 

We present seven facts about the High Line Park that we think you’ll find quite, er, elevating. Use this as High Line Park Trivia to stump and astonish your friends. Some High Line trivia for you: 

1)   Some area history, in 1847, NYC had street-level railroad tracks down Manhattan’s West Side. "West Side Cowboys" were put in place to ride horses and wave flags in front of the locomotives rolling heavy with Cargo.  Due to endless accidents between freight trains and street traffic, 10th Avenue became known as "Death Avenue”. Yikes. 

  2)  The High Line opened to trains in 1934 and ran from where Madison Square Garden stands today to Spring Street. It was designed to go through the center of blocks, rather than over the avenue and connected directly to factories and warehouses, allowing trains to roll right inside buildings.

   3)  When the park opened in June 2009, the park attracted more than 300,000 people during the first six weeks. Last year the High Line drew 3.7 million visitors with about half of the park's visitors being New Yorkers.

   4)  Leave the football at home: Rules prohibit “throwing or moving objects of any kind—Frisbees, balls, etc”. Most because one errant softball of the side may lead to a 12 car pile-up as your wayward ball shatters a taxi windshield. Dogs also are not allowed on the High Line, in part, because the path is quite very narrow and the concern is that pets on leashes would overcrowd.

  5)  One section has been opened, but two more stretches all the way up 34^th street to complete a 1.4 mile loop are expected to be completed. We’re just about the celebrate the one year anniversary of the second phase that opened on June 8^th, 2011.

6)   We might have stolen the idea from French: The city of Paris successfully converted a similar rail viaduct into an elevated park called the Promenade Plantée. However, the American version has been such a roaring success that projects similar to the High Line are in early development in St. Louis, Philadelphia, Jersey City and Chicago.

7)   (and most important) When one hears nature call when one happens to be on a 30 foot train trestle far from modern conveniences, it is good to know that restrooms are located at the 16th Street access point.

More info and details can be found here: High Line park official site 
  

And for all NYC Park Info, look here:New York City Department of Parks and Recreation