Meme City

Meme City, originally uploaded by ! . © Angela Lobefaro . !.

© Angela M. Lobefaro
All Rights Reserved
© RIPRODUZIONE RISERVATA

New York - USA

taken from the High LIne

The High Line is a 1.45-mile (2.33 km) New York City park built on a section of the former elevated freight railroad of the West Side Line, along the lower west side of Manhattan. The High Line park will eventually run from the West Side Yard, near the Javits Convention Center, through the neighborhood of Chelsea to Gansevoort Street (one block below West 12th Street) in the Meat Packing District of the West Village. The High Line was built in the early 1930s by the New York Central Railroad to eliminate the fatal accidents that occurred along the street-level right-of-way and to offer direct warehouse-to-freight car service that 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 (illustration, right).[1] It was in active use until 1980.

In the 1990s, it became known to a few urban explorers and local residents for the tough, drought-tolerant wild grasses, shrubs, and trees that had sprung up in the gravel along the abandoned railway.

In 1999, the non-profit Friends of the High Line[2] was formed. Broadened community support of public redevelopment for the High Line for pedestrian use grew, and City funding was allocated in 2004. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and city Council Speakers Gifford Miller and Christine C. Quinn were important supporters. The southernmost section, from Gansevoort Street to 20th Street, opened as a city park on June 8, 2009.[3] The middle section is still being refurbished, while the northernmost section's future remains uncertain, depending on a development project currently underway at the Hudson Yards.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Line_%28New_York_City%29