Travel

The High Line, Chelsea, New York

COVID-19 update The High Line will reopen on Thursday, July 16. Free timed-entry passes will be available on the website https://www.thehighline.org/ beginning July 9. The High Line team has worked closely with partners at NYC Parks to safely welcome you again with a free timed-entry reservation system, reduced operating hours and amenities, and limited capacity in order to allow for social distancing. New hours: Noon – 8pm daily -- enter only at Gansevoort Street (via elevator and stairs.) All visits move one-way northwards from the Gansevoort Street entrance. All other access points are exit-only. The High Line is open from Gansevoort Street to 23rd Street, and is closed north of 23rd Street. The High Line is an elevated linear park a mile and 1/2 long created on former railroad tracks on the west side of Manhattan. The High Line has become one of the most popular attractions in New York City. It's amazing. Originally it was planned as a neighborhood park because Chelsea doesn't have much in the way of parks, and now it attracts visitors from all over the world. And New Yorkers love it as well. We will take you on a walk from start to finish, a mile and 1/2, from the Whitney Museum up to Hudson Yards. At the south end, on Gansevoort Street, you clearly see the elevated structure beginning, where a gentle staircase leads you up into another world, an elevated park that lets you glide over the city. These entrances provide a physical and symbolic transition from the urban to the rural. Up here you feel like you're out in a country meadow. Starting in the Meatpacking District, the park runs from Gansevoort Street located three blocks south of 14th Street – through Chelsea to the northern edge of Hudson Yards on 34th Street. The High Line also features special exhibits of art and sculpture you'll see along the way. These gates, with their painted flowers, were inspired by a combination of Impressionism and the stark modernism of the buildings all around the Highline. The walkway continues north twenty-three blocks, all away up to 34th St. and the Hudson Yards terminus. Chelsea's located between 14th St. and 34th St., between the Hudson River and about sixth Avenue. It's just about one mile south of Times Square, which puts it pretty close to Midtown and yet it is a world apart. There are many places to sit down and relax along the way, on weather-resistant repurposed wood furniture, encouraging you to take your time and enjoy the passing parade of people. We'll soon be approaching a very large brick building. It had been the headquarters of Nabisco, the National Biscuit Company, back in the early twentieth century, famous for making Oreo cookies and saltines here, in what had been considered the largest bakery in the country. The High Line passes right through the building's 10th Ave. side. This allowed freight trains on these formerly elevated tracks to enter directly within the building itself. This large open Plaza is the 10th Ave. Square, that's connected to an amphitheater on the viaduct. It's at 17th St., where the High Line crosses over 10th Ave., with an overlook that provides views of the street from a window placed in the space created by removing the structure’s steel beams. The entertainment here is watching the cars drive by, up 10th Ave. The park was designed by James Corner's New York-based landscape architecture firm Field Operations and architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro, with garden design by Piet Oudolf of the Netherlands. http://tourvideos.com/