The High Line

We strolled the High Line today.  Below are excerpts from the Wikipedia.  The link to the full article in at the bottom of this post.   I took all these pictures this afternoon.
Click on any or all of the pictures below to enlarge them.

The High Line is an elevated rail line, the successor to the street-level freight line original built through Chelsea in 1847, which was the cause of numerous fatal accidents. It was elevated in the early 1930s by the New York Central Railroad, but fell out of use. Originally slated to be torn down, it has now been converted into an elevated urban park.

You can make out the railroad rails in this picture

The High Line is a 1-mile (1.6 km)[1] New York City linear park built on a 1.45-mile (2.33 km)[2] section of the former elevated New York Central Railroad spur called the West Side Line, which runs along the lower west side of Manhattan; it has been redesigned and planted as an aerial greenway. A similar project in Paris (the nearly 3 mile Promenade plantée, completed in 1993) was the inspiration for this project. The High Line Park currently runs from Gansevoort Street, three blocks below West 14th Street, in the Meatpacking District, up to 30th Street, through the neighborhood of Chelsea to the West Side Yard, near the Javits Convention Center. 

Original railroad rails

The recycling of the railway into an urban park has spurred real estate development in the neighborhoods which lie along the line.[3] 

A lovely place, for all the locals

In 1847, the City of New York authorized street-level railroad tracks down Manhattan’s West Side. For safety, the railroads hired men – the "West Side Cowboys" – to ride horses and wave flags in front of the trains.[4] Yet so many accidents occurred between freight trains and other traffic that 10th Avenue became known as "Death Avenue". 

Very well taken care of, and clean as a whistle

The High Line opened to trains in 1934. It originally ran from 34th Street to St. John's Park Terminal, at Spring Street. It was designed to go through the center of blocks, rather than over the avenue, to avoid the drawbacks of elevated trains. It connected directly to factories and warehouses, allowing trains to roll right inside buildings. Milk, meat, produce, and raw and manufactured goods could be transported and unloaded without disturbing traffic on the streets.[4] This also reduced pilferage for the Bell Laboratories Building, now the Westbeth Artists Community, and the Nabisco plant, now Chelsea Market, which were served from protected sidings within the structures.[5] 

A Holly plant grown into an 8 foot tree

Wikipedia link to the High Line: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Line_%28New_York_City%29