For my last day, I'd negotiated a late checkout of 2.30pm, so I was able to do some last-minute sightseeing. I walked along
the High Line, which is a former freight elevated railway line on the West side of Manhattan that runs from 14th Street up to 30th Street along. I decided to walk from the Southern end to the Northern end, so I took the 'A' subway train down to 14th Street to find the end and then walked along the whole route.
The wooden planks form the floor all the way along the route, sometimes with old rails between them still that have been preserved from the old freight line. Since the line is elevated, you can get some good photographs of New York streets without having to worry about the traffic below as well as photos of the Hudson and across it to New Jersey.
There are lots of wildflower beds that have been installed along the length of the walk, some of which are shown in the pictures here. It is still quite a young development, so it will look a lot better in future years as things have had a chance to grow to a better size and all blend together. Some of the plants have been placed in between the planks and the rails to give it a natural look. The pictures I have here are a small selection of the plants that I saw along the length of the walk.
There are lots of benches to sit on all the way along the walk, which meant that there was always a spot free for a rest for anybody who wanted it. One of the benches was in a shallow pool - the water was coming up through a drain one side, just barely covering the surface and going down the drain on the other side. In other places there were large banks of wooden seating that people could use to sit and watch the city life go past underneath.
Sometimes there were small lawned sections which made you forget that you were actually up on an elevated walkway. These often had long wooden benches alongside, as shown in the photograph.
It was very quiet, considering it's in the middle of a busy major city! Most of the traffic doesn't come right to the western edge of Manhattan unless it's going down the Lincoln Tunnel to New Jersey.
At the Northern end at 30 St, they are building the next section of the line and we could see that they have only just started that work. Eventually, the High Line will continue further North and the subway 7 line will be extended westwards from 42 St-Times Square to have a station right next to it, which will make it easier to get to (and would make it easier to get to Mets games from my hotel!) Since the nearest subway station was at 34 St, my hotel was on 39 St and the next station was 42 St, there was no point taking the train back, so I walked the remaining 9 blocks, getting back with an hour to finish packing before setting off for Penn Station to start my journey home.
For my last day, I'd negotiated a late checkout of 2.30pm, so I was able to do some last-minute sightseeing. I walked along the High Line, which is a former freight elevated railway line on the West side of Manhattan that runs from 14th Street up to 30th Street along. I decided to walk from the Southern end to the Northern end, so I took the 'A' subway train down to 14th Street to find the end and then walked along the whole route.
The wooden planks form the floor all the way along the route, sometimes with old rails between them still that have been preserved from the old freight line. Since the line is elevated, you can get some good photographs of New York streets without having to worry about the traffic below as well as photos of the Hudson and across it to New Jersey.
There are lots of wildflower beds that have been installed along the length of the walk, some of which are shown in the pictures here. It is still quite a young development, so it will look a lot better in future years as things have had a chance to grow to a better size and all blend together. Some of the plants have been placed in between the planks and the rails to give it a natural look. The pictures I have here are a small selection of the plants that I saw along the length of the walk.
There are lots of benches to sit on all the way along the walk, which meant that there was always a spot free for a rest for anybody who wanted it. One of the benches was in a shallow pool - the water was coming up through a drain one side, just barely covering the surface and going down the drain on the other side. In other places there were large banks of wooden seating that people could use to sit and watch the city life go past underneath.
Sometimes there were small lawned sections which made you forget that you were actually up on an elevated walkway. These often had long wooden benches alongside, as shown in the photograph.
It was very quiet, considering it's in the middle of a busy major city! Most of the traffic doesn't come right to the western edge of Manhattan unless it's going down the Lincoln Tunnel to New Jersey.
At the Northern end at 30 St, they are building the next section of the line and we could see that they have only just started that work. Eventually, the High Line will continue further North and the subway 7 line will be extended westwards from 42 St-Times Square to have a station right next to it, which will make it easier to get to (and would make it easier to get to Mets games from my hotel!) Since the nearest subway station was at 34 St, my hotel was on 39 St and the next station was 42 St, there was no point taking the train back, so I walked the remaining 9 blocks, getting back with an hour to finish packing before setting off for Penn Station to start my journey home.
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