The High Line was built in the 1930s to elevate dangerous and congsted railroad traffic from New York City’s streets. The rise of trucking in the 1950s led to a drop in rail freight on the High Line and in the 1960s part of the High Line was torn down. The final freight train to run on the High Line carried 3 carloads of frozen turkies in 1980. In 1993 another chuck was demolished. Now there are plans to preserve the High Line and to convert it into a public park.
When Mike invited me to join his group of urban explorers in going to the High Line I was really excited. Hopefully the Friends of the High Line’s preservation plans will go through, but I wanted to experience the railroad as it is now, raw, before that. It wasn’t easy to walk it in the snow for hours, I was completely wet and freezing to death, but it was definately worth it.
- More of my photos from The High Line
See Also:
- Friends of the High Line
Other People’s Photos from our Adventure:
- Winter High Line 1 by Mike
- Winter High Line 2 by Mike
- Winter High Line 3 by Mike
- Winter High Line 4 by Mike
- Walking the High Line by Tien
- As Seen on the High Line by Tien
- Seen From the High Line by Tien
- Photographs of the High Line, by Rosecrans Baldwin in 2001
- The High Line by Queso in August 2002
- BluishOrange’s Photos of the High Line, August 2002
- The Highline, by Jake Dobkin in August 2002
- Photos of New York City’s High Line by David F. Gallagher, October 2002
- a walk on the high line in June 24, 2003.
45 responses so far ↓
1 tien mao's little read book... // Jan 31, 2004 at 6:35 pm
Walking the High Line
Early this morning, I met up with Rachelle, Mike, and a couple of Mike’s friends for a trip to the High Line. Not exactly the safest or wisest thing in the world to do, but a fun and entertaining…
2 Satan's Laundromat // Jan 31, 2004 at 6:43 pm
Winter High Line 1
The High Line, an abandoned elevated line on the…
3 corie // Jan 31, 2004 at 6:46 pm
Nice photo, Rachelle. I love the Highline. It’s such a beautiful place to explore.
4 rachelleb // Jan 31, 2004 at 7:02 pm
thanks.. mike, tien and i have many more that we will be posting soon!
5 Chris // Jan 31, 2004 at 7:12 pm
I agree - friggin awesome photo! ’scuse my novice knowledge of the city, but where exactly is that…?
6 EverythingNY // Jan 31, 2004 at 8:03 pm
Rachelleb.com
7 rachelleb // Jan 31, 2004 at 9:46 pm
the shorty explanation is that it’s an old, abandoned elevated railroad track that is closed off now.
all of my photos are posted now. I think tien and mike are still working on theirs.
8 matt // Jan 31, 2004 at 10:01 pm
That Save the Tracks mural is amazing!
9 Steve // Jan 31, 2004 at 10:12 pm
It was nice meeting you today, Rachelle. Your pics are great … makes me wish I’d had something other than my analog with me while we were up there.
10 rachelleb // Jan 31, 2004 at 10:49 pm
it was nice to meet you too.. i like the photo of you sneaking under the wall!
11 joe s // Jan 31, 2004 at 11:17 pm
Sweet! I love the first razor wire photo (#10), and the brick wall in #35 would make great wallpaper.
12 dad bowden // Feb 1, 2004 at 12:26 am
Interesting photos Rachelle Mike and
Tien
I did read a article last year in the wall street journal about the high line
Question: Is that not in the area were they that is the mayor and other city officals.
Would like to build the new Jet
Sadium
Great job guys
13 dmadeo // Feb 1, 2004 at 1:41 am
Glad you guys didn’t get caught/ticketed with trespassing. That’s one way to leave NY!
14 rachelleb // Feb 1, 2004 at 7:05 am
i know! we were trying to be careful if we saw any police or anything. luckily at the parking lot where we snuck in the attendant wasn’t there.
dad, the new jets stadium is supposed to go either by or where the hudson yards are, i think.
15 joe s // Feb 1, 2004 at 7:39 am
New stadium is to be built over the hudson yards.
There were footprints in the snow. Did it look like lots of people had been up there in the past few days?
The city’s in a bind with the trespassing thing. They don’t want people getting hurt, yet, all the photos are great publicity for turning the High Line into a unique park.
16 rachelleb // Feb 1, 2004 at 9:41 am
in some places there were already footprints and in others were were on our own. in a way it was nice when there were already footprints because we could step in them and the snow wasnt as bad. on the otherhand, it was more exciting to know we were the first ones up there since the snowfall in some places where there were no footprints. of course this meant we had to plow through the snow on our own .. and in some spots it was over knee deep. also the snow made the footing really difficult. you didnt know what was under the snow… rail, garbage, plywood, etc. once mike stepped directly into a buried bucket and was thigh deep in the snow.
17 Mike // Feb 1, 2004 at 10:34 am
There’s a thigh in the bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza…
18 eebmore // Feb 1, 2004 at 11:29 am
that front page photo is fantastic!
19 impressed // Feb 2, 2004 at 9:02 am
Terrific pictures, I have often wondered about the line, how long was the section you walked?
20 rachelleb // Feb 2, 2004 at 9:07 am
we started at about 33rd and ended at about gansevoort.. so maybe like 20 blocks?
21 impressed // Feb 2, 2004 at 9:09 am
thanks, and did it go further, or was that the end there? btw Your ‘photos on the site are always great, did you study photography or art?
22 rachelleb // Feb 2, 2004 at 9:17 am
thanks, wi… uh.. impressed. i havent studied art or photography but would like to take some photography classes. the only photography class i’ve ever had lasted 1 quarter, was in 10th grade, and was mostly taken as an excuse to skip class to go “take photos”. goof off class. oh, and we walked to the end of the line, til there was no more.
23 adam // Feb 2, 2004 at 9:38 am
the photos are fantastic. great work - it was great meeting you - continue your work as you venture to other places
24 tien mao's little read book... // Feb 2, 2004 at 10:24 am
Seen on the High Line
As promised, more photos from the High Line. These are random things I saw on the walk, including remnants of things from the rail line, a sign for the Chelsea Market, an old Sony boom box, and some artwork….
25 rachelle // Feb 2, 2004 at 11:29 am
thanks, adam, it was nice to meet you too.
26 Richard // Feb 2, 2004 at 1:50 pm
I took that graphics arts class in high school too. It hardly qualifies as a photography class.
27 Steve // Feb 2, 2004 at 1:52 pm
Rachelle, which one of us is that in the title picture? Just curious.
28 rachelle // Feb 2, 2004 at 2:04 pm
yeh, Mr. Foos, the instructor of that class, is hardly a photographer. he used to rub the girls shoulders when we were trying to do our publishing work.. and lock us in the dark room with pubescent teenaged boys who had raging hormones. not a great idea.
steve, i think that may be you in the photograph, but I’m not positive. someone else asked me too.. i should take another look at the original and see if i can tell. i think it’s either you or adam.
29 ChrisM // Feb 2, 2004 at 3:24 pm
Great Pics!!!!!
Here is another abandoned “right of way” maybe you can tour it too
http://www.ameritech.net/users/chicagotunnel/tunnel1.html
30 Richard // Feb 2, 2004 at 6:29 pm
Actually, it’s Fuhs… but who’s counting. Ya, that class was kind of a blowoff, but taking all the photos was kind of cool. I think I still have my photo album from that class. I don’t remember ever getting locked in the dark room with girls.
31 rachelleb // Feb 2, 2004 at 7:40 pm
yeh, and i bet he never tried to massage your shoulders either!!!!!! i still have my photo album too. it’s pretty sucky. at the end i didnt have enough photos even though we were supposedly taking photos every day so i brought in some negatives from home, from mom & dad’s camera, and developed them in the school dark room. we traded some negatives too.. i acidentally developed one photo flipped horizontally. i didnt know it was flipped horizontally because it was of someone else’s parents in someone else’s kitchen. i got busted because the words on something behind them, like dishwashing soap, was backwards and he was all like “dont you even know what your own kitchen looks like” and i was like.. “uh.. i didnt notice because that’s at our neighbor’s house.” im sure he believed that.. yeh. right.
chris, the chicago tunnels look cool. ill have to look for them when i get there.
32 tien mao's little read book... // Feb 2, 2004 at 11:15 pm
Seen From the High Line
Earlier, I had pictures of things I saw on the High Line, now I have some pictures of things that I saw from the High Line. The High Line has an endless supply of photo worthy items. While it…
33 Richard // Feb 3, 2004 at 1:10 am
i think i ended up ripping off some photos too. he always told us that we were just supposed to go to the park across the street, but then never said anything when our photos were from all around town.
34 rachelleb // Feb 3, 2004 at 7:35 am
fuhs told us that if he saw a photo of the clocktower downtown and it said 1:30 (or a time that was obviously a time that we were supposed to be in the park taking photos) then he would assume we had checked out a camera and taken photos on the weekend. that was basically permission for us to skip class. only one student got in trouble and that was because he was harassing kids who were running the mile for gym class. the gym teacher complained .. what was his name? mr. murray? …and that student guy had to sit inside for the rest of the semester and take photos of pictures in magazine. brutal.
35 Richard // Feb 3, 2004 at 8:04 am
i think it was Mimier. (sp?) one time i got out of running the mile in phy ed by saying that my ankle hurt from the track meet the night before. it did kind of hurt, but i still probably could have ran.
36 tien mao's little read book... // Feb 3, 2004 at 9:50 am
Graffiti on the High Line
Finally, the end of my High Line posts. It turns out that I have tons of photos of graffiti on the High Line. I don’t have the skill they call restraint when it comes to deciding what photos to…
37 sassylittlepunkin // Feb 3, 2004 at 12:47 pm
wow, rachelle, thanks for taking me on that virtual photo tour! i’ve been seeing tien’s photos show up on his page, too, and it’s just been amazing. i never knew the high line even existed! you guys are brave to have done the journey, what with the scooting under walls and going through old buildings. were you scared?
38 rachelle // Feb 4, 2004 at 9:36 am
the only scary part to me was around the hudson yards. . its pretty wide open so you could totally see us up there and there were also helicopters flying around on the hudson river so they for sure saw us. to top it off, hudson yards has a really loud PA system and when they would talk i would think they were yelling at us and i was ready to instinctively drop to my knees and put my hands up!!!
39 Satan's Laundromat // Feb 4, 2004 at 7:25 pm
Winter High Line 5
High Line photos, January 31, 2004: Winter…
40 Satan's Laundromat // Feb 4, 2004 at 7:30 pm
Winter High Line 4
High Line photos, January 31, 2004:Winter High Line 1,…
41 Satan's Laundromat // Feb 4, 2004 at 7:33 pm
Winter High Line 3
High Line photos, January 31, 2004:Winter High Line…
42 Satan's Laundromat // Feb 4, 2004 at 7:37 pm
Winter High Line 2
–> High Line photos, January 31, 2004:Winter High…
43 Mike // Feb 5, 2004 at 12:16 pm
BTW, that train yard is called West Side Yard, not Hudson Yards.
44 rachelleb.com links // Apr 8, 2004 at 8:24 am
Neckface in the New Yorker
Neckface in the New Yorker. We saw a lot of his work when we walked the High Line….
45 Gothamist // Feb 17, 2005 at 10:22 am
Builders Weigh Cost of Bloomie’s Wrath
Unsurprisingly, builders yesterday were wary about making an offer for the air rights for the West Side railyards, which the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has opened up for the next month to public bidding. While “licking their chops” at the p…