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The High Line is a public park built on a former New York Central freight viaduct that runs about a mile and a half up the west side of Manhattan, from Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District through Chelsea to 34th Street at Hudson Yards. The path is a concrete walkway thirty feet above the street, threaded through gardens planted to echo the wild growth that took over the tracks after the trains stopped. It is a walking park, not a riding trail: bicycles are prohibited, and racks sit at street level by the stairs. Expect a slow, crowded stroll with river views on the west, rail yards at the north end, and stairs or elevators every few blocks.
High Line
Your comfort. Prognosticated.
-Cory
In a typical year the High Line has about 112 to 160 days of excellent weather for popular activities such as hiking, dog walking, running, e-biking, birding, biking, and walking, with April, May, and October the best months.
Hourly comfort scores for the next 15 days of weather, tuned to your activity and your own thresholds.
Plan your visit to this trail. Get the best windows for a comfortable outing.
Enjoy the High Line!
There is too little deciduous tree cover along the High Line to measure a peak color window. The trail has 5% deciduous coverage, with the majority being red maple, yellow-poplar, white oak, scarlet oak, white ash, boxelder, black oak, and black cherry.
The last train down the High Line hauled three carloads of frozen turkeys in 1980. The story starts in 1847, when the city authorized street-level tracks along Tenth and Eleventh Avenues for the Hudson River Railroad, later part of the New York Central. The trains fed lower Manhattan with meat, dairy, and produce, and killed so many people that Tenth Avenue became Death Avenue. From the 1850s the railroad sent men on horseback ahead of each train, waving red flags. These West Side Cowboys made their final ride in 1941. In 1929 the city, the state, and the New York Central agreed on the West Side Improvement Project to lift the freight line off the street. The elevated line opened in 1934, thirty feet up, from 34th Street to the St. John's Park Terminal, passing straight through the Nabisco plant and the Bell Laboratories building.Trucks took the freight after the war. The southern blocks from Clarkson to Bank Street came down in the 1960s, and the five blocks from Bank to Gansevoort Street followed in 1991. Joshua David and Robert Hammond founded Friends of the High Line in 1999 to stop demolition. CSX Transportation donated the structure to the city in 2005. The first section, Gansevoort to 20th Street, opened in June 2009. The park reached 30th Street in 2011, wrapped the Rail Yards to 34th Street in 2014, added the Spur in 2019, and linked east to Moynihan Train Hall in 2023.
High Line Moynihan Connector
