The High Line Essay

The High Line is a garden-like pathway built on a portion of the former New York Central Railroad. It is located on the west side of Manhattan and extends for approximately a mile and a half long. The interesting part of the transformation of the rail line to a public walking path is that several New York citizens were the primary advocates for the drastic change. However, the arising question is why a park was chosen to replace the railroad. The transformation suggests that New York City citizens were conscious of the environment, which is significant because it was definitely a newer concept of the mid to late twentieth century. Undoubtedly, many more social and cultural issues, such as environmental awareness, came into play during the progression of the twentieth century. This evolution was the leading factor in the creation of the High Line. Prior to the 1930’s, to a time even before …show more content…
The design was actually influenced by the Promenade Plantee, which also serves a similar purpose as the High Line. It is a garden-like path on an old railway line located in France. The year after the High Line’s outline was drafted, in the year 2004, the City government granted fifty million dollars to build the High Line, and in 2005 the abandoned rail line was removed. Soon after, in 2008 the High Line was actually finished after a very intense process. The important issue for designers was to preserve the plants that had grown itself over the several decades between the abandonment of the rail line, and the High Line restoration. Aside from the many varieties of plants that had originally grown themselves, special attention was paid to the shrubs and trees that were newly introduced. They were selected by their abilities to be self-sustainable, so the new path way would not be a huge financial burden on the City. The design of this beautiful pathway was carefully