Mayor Bloomberg has issued a four month study to see if the High Line can be saved for a Rails to Trails public use, or even creating a new subway line to ease congestion on the West Side trains.
Good news, Johnny. Is this the line which was featured in Trains magazine? It would be sacriledge to tear it down to let the developers have their way!
Johnny, that's great news! The City has always needed a line downtown west of the Seventh Avenue line.
Alan, yep! That's the line! Hank, we could conceivably have a new subway line from the Yonkers border on the Hudson River, to lower Manhattan. It's insane to think anything like that in this city could or would be torn down! Maybe our Mayor had one of those unfiltered cigarettes and got mellow! He heard HIGH LINE and got excited! (Guess you know what I mean by now. I'm sure it's all over the country even the world about Mike's sampling of illegal stuff! LOL! Well, at least he was honest about it!) That line above the street is a wild thing to walk along. It really is another world up there. I don't think anyone can get up there anymore though........... The tracks and switches are still intact too. Must be the same ones from the 30's!
I was amazed to see the amount of vegetation up there, including some very nice wild flowers Would be an excellent walk and vantage point to view the cityscape. Fingers crossed!
Alan, the most interesting thing about the growth up there is that some of the plants are not native to New York! It makes me wonder what made them grow, when human and animal life up there is extremely rare. I'd accept anything that the Mayor would like to create on the High Line, just so it doesn't come down! It's an eyesore to some, but it's such a historic piece of iron that everyone in this city should learn about. I'm sure that line was "over-engineerd" just as the subway was, and it should last 100 years or more!
OK, serious now.......couldn't resist a dig at your latest resident..... I'm sure that the decision by Mayor Bloomberg didn't sit well with the yuppies on the West Side, nor with any developers, but hey..... Now, is there a conceivable access by rail to the elevated line should it ever be used for mass transit service?
In the latter years of the High Line, all the other railroad yards and carfloats in Manhattan were gone. The last cars to run up there came down from upstate via the West Side Freight Line. The cars were broken down in the 60th street yard and then ventured south under the streets and open cuts to where the High Line began around 33rd or 34th. I believe that area was the old B&O yard. (They had carfloats at 26th). (Now it's used by the LIRR as a storage yard). So, somewhere under there, has to connection...........unless the tracks were torn up when the storage yard was built. But it doesn't seem impossible to create something new if need be. If it does still exist, I have never seen it in person, not wanting to venture into Mole People territory.
Very interesting, I've been to NYC but don't recall this "high line". Now here is a video project for one of our railfan press video photographers. Instead of the endless runbys of modern trains, how about a video from one end to the other of the high line!
Welcome aboard TxRocket, great to have you! Take a look at this link. It has all the hoopla about the High Line completion back in 1934. NYC High Line Completion Hoopla OH NO!!!! Somebody dropped the website. Does anybody know what happened? Johnny or Russ, do y'all know of another route to that info? [ 01 May 2002, 13:20: Message edited by: Hank Coolidge ]
Hank Try this for the High Line. http://www.forgotten-ny.com/SUBWAYS/Tenth%20Ave%20trestle/Tenth.html
TxRocket, The Railroad.net website has been disabled for re-building. The homepage says it should be re-opening this month (May), so I'll keep checking. I would hate to lose that info on the High Line, aka NYC Westside Line.
Thanks Gil, that's a nice site. The one I was refering to was the promotional package put out by the New York Central (or the City?) when the Westside was completed in '34. It contained many current-day photos and a lengthy description of the Line. I hope that when Railroad.net comes back online, they will still have that Westside site.
Howdy Tex. Welcome aboard! I was under the High Line several times today. It runs from 34th down to.........yikes. I forget what street it ends at now. I know I walked down to Jane St. once before they chopped some off the Southern end. I don't think anyone can get up there anymore. I know for a fact there are large fences at certain places, making it impossible to travel along what's left of the line. Hank, my link to the High Line must be the same as yours. I haven't been able to get into it either. That was a good one and I know that that site was from a booklet that the Central gave out explaning what the High Line's purpose was. I actually had a reproduction of that booklet when I belonged to the West Side Rail Development Foundation, years ago. The booklet went the way of the Foundation. Gone, but not forgotten!!!!!!!!! Gil, I just recently saw the site you posted. Good stuff! Try this one too. I met the young fellow that runs this site and he was a very cool individual! http://www.oldnyc.com/highline/contents/highline.html
Johnny, I just did the 'virtual tour' on the site link above. That is a superb website, and obviously a labour of love for the creator. What a fascinating structure. It would be a tragedy if it were taken down, here's hoping for better uses for this unique line.
Alan, it's such a neat structure. I would cringe if they take it down! It's fascinating that it went through so many buildings. I wonder what became of the freight elevators and other stuff that were in the buildings???????????? I believe all of them had loading docks on the line. Hank has wonderful memories of watching trains there! I hope he will share them again in this thread! I know I was flipping out reading some first hand accounts of what was up there!
Johnny, you give me too much credit. What Johnny is refering to is that my Father worked in the Bell Telephone Laboratories Bethune Street facility where the Westside Line went through its 2nd floor. His office was on the 6th floor, northwest corner, so I could watch the freights go in and out of the building 4 floors below his north window. When I got bored with that (I lie too! ), I could watch the switching action in and out of the Hudson River wharves down on West Street. Unfortunately, he would only take me into his office once or twice a year. One day I actually saw the Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, Ile de France, and the United States all berthed at their respective piers between 40th and 44th Streets .... S I G H Johnny, one day in the mid 1950's we were southbound on the West Side Highway somewhere between 60th and 80th Streets, where ever the NYC freight line was under Riverside Park behind those arched windows that were on the River side of the tracks ... anyway, I saw dense black smoke coming out through some broken windows. A little further south, where the tracks came into the open, I saw the rear end of a northbound freight and realized that the smoke must be coming from its engines. Looking back, I'm sure they must have been FA's with that much smoke.
Hank - Back in the 70s I inspected signals on the west side line from Spuyten Dyvil to the yard near W60th when it was PennCentral. Some areas were not the best neighborhoods and it took 5 or 6 people to do the inspection. They left 2 with the surburban on the street, 1 or 2 watched the street above so someone would not drop something on us and the supervisor and I did the testing. In the west side park there were locked gates in those arches where you could go in and climb down a ladder to get to the track level. My last inspection was to investigate an application to remove the signals. I would imagine they may have installed new signals now that Amtrak runs that way to get to Penn Station.
Yes Gil, there are all new signals along there. There were some (southbound) visible right at 72nd St. from the West Side Highway until Trump covered over everything with buildings. Another set I know are right about 123rd St. where the north end of the tunnel is. And there are some at the bridge across the Harlem River/North River. Above that tunnel I have not ventured. It's STILL a rough neighborhood! Do you remember the RR YMCA under the highwy at 70th St? That's the 60th St. yard that fascinated me since I was a toddler. You would be shocked to see that it is nearly covered over with apartment buildings. The entire elevated West Side Highway from 72nd to 57th was taken down and completely refurbished, then put back up again. One of the new buildings came within 6 inches of an exisiting building, blocking the dweller's windows. Only in New York. The one remaining carfloat will be preserved and will be used for something someday. And Amtrak runs a nice bunch of trains through there each day. Hank, you are being modest. YOU SAW THE HIGHLINE IN ACTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
