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 34th
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 8th, 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.
