As I walked up the steep, concrete steps with Professor Williams, I felt like I was climbing Mount Everest. It required a constant effort since there were so many steps and I would be doomed if I didn’t reach the top before I became exhausted. It was very busy near 16 on 10^th, or High Line; makes sense why High Line was called that because it is very high (I didn’t mean to be corny). When I got to the top, I felt like I wasn’t in Manhattan anymore. Every step closer to the top took a load of NYC off my shoulders. Suddenly, I wasn’t thinking about stocks and the Wall Trade Center anymore. Suddenly, I forgot about competition and money and business. I entered an island of my own surrounded by many attractions and ‘four bodies of water’. The four bodies of water around me were characterized by the fluidity of traffic from behind me, the actual ocean in front of me, the massive billboards and signs to my right, and the never-ending movement of grass and leaves to my left. The air had a fresh and ocean-like smell to it. It was almost like I felt superior to everyone on the ground some 40 steps under me. There is an importance to the feeling of superiority when you are physically at a higher level than everyone else. You smell a different type of air, you breathe a different type of oxygen, and you are not involved in the mundane lifestyle of the normal human being. I haven’t even moved yet! I walked to the right toward West 23^rd Street. I saw birds flying by my head and resting on the pole beside me; that made me feel invulnerable.

There was a cool breeze to the air that day on February 10^th, it was a very cold day. I was eating peppermint gum during my journey. As the wind blew my hair back and hit my face and mouth, a new taste of the mint gum entered my mouth. There’s something so pleasurable about the taste of mint gum in cool air. I immediately saw a billboard sign about turtles and the safety of turtles. The sign portrayed a beautiful woman in a bikini interacting with a turtle. It made me feel like I was on a long vacation on a beach., despite the cold weather. There was a unique design to the floor and benches. Every section of the marble floor, or approximately every street length of floor had these long, smooth blade-like design where four to five blade-like marbles protruded into the concrete floor. Between these protrusions began a planting of small trees and grass-like plants with a myriad of colors. Some were orange, some were red, some were purple, and some just looked brown and withered from the cold weather. The environment at High Line was peaceful. The sound of traffic wasn’t threatening, it had a certain flow to it and a constant rhythm of honks and revving engines, mainly due to the uniform, rhythmic change of traffic lights around the area. The benches, too, had blade-like protrusions to them that extended from only one side or leg of the bench.

The main part of High Line, I think, was the center pit that looked like stadium benchers and had a large window in which you can look through to view the beautiful streets. Just looking at it made me nervous because the pit had no base or foundation to it, so it seemed like it was suspended in the air. The pit was closed due to the severe weather forecast, but one man wearing beats trespassed and sat in the pit. He was shaking his head right to left and seemed very content in his serene environment. As I continued down the lower streets, I reached the tunnel where the train tracks can be seen. A new and unpredicted view arose a little further down. Wooden beds were attached to the tracks and it just made me nostalgic of those fantasy movies where people would sit on the beds and the beds would move on the tracks like roller coasters. Ultimately, High Line was really an interesting place to be at. I saw people of all kinds and nationalities, from Russian to Asian to European. High Line was a place that made me feel cultured and made me appreciate the different types of efforts everyone else surrounding me made to follow their cultures and traditions. I would really suggest High Line to anyone looking for a free place to go to on a date!