The High Line walkway has to be one of the most beautiful places to visit in the city. I usually visit in the summer with friends where there are special events going on but it was quite interesting to see a place so dear to my heart in the winter. It was such a difference when walking out of the loud and busy Chelsea Market into the freezing street of New York. To start off: IT WAS FREEZING so my recommendation is to go revisit in June or July! Everything looked so dead. The trees were colorless, there were construction tarps everywhere, there was just a smell of garbage. People walking around were in a rush to get somewhere; no one was strolling; no one was making use of the benches.
Personally, the High Line represents the mixing of the past and modern society. When you walk up the steep, salted steps you think about every person who walked those steps in the past, the same day or will eventually climb them. When you get to the top, the air feels cleaner, and lighter. Looking to your left, you see the Hudson River, The Statue of Liberty, and serenity. In combination with the railroad tracks which surprisingly in New York City used to be above ground, I could almost hear the workers, the immigrants who used to wait for shipments of meat to come in or to send out. The smell that must have been there. On the left there were old houses, some even looked like old tenements, with fire escapes and discolored brick. Looking to the right was like looking directly into a modern movie about New York City. Five lanes of traffic, taxi drivers honking and almost crashing into things, fancy restaurants, city buses, garbage trucks, funny billboards. There were huge modern apartment buildings, condos, and art studios. (I even walked by on someone changing for what looked like a photoshoot-um…close the shades this is New York!) It made me wonder how people used to live without all of this and in today’s society we are so dependent on it. While on the High Line you see graffiti artwork, see people dressed in different types of clothes (cultural or not), hear all different kind of language, hear a lot of construction noise, all things that have become a norm in modern society.
People watching was something that I always enjoyed doing. There was a prominence of selfie-sticks, Nikon and Canon cameras. It was noticeable that if someone was holding it super tight to their chest, or wearing their backpack on their front, they were TOURISTS (I still hold my position that tourists are weird). It was interesting to observe the actions of the children, the teens, the young adults and the older people who were visiting the High Line. Another interesting part was looking up at signs that people put up. One that stuck with me said “Take a picture and remember yourself at the High Line.” It made me think that my visit today would not be the same visit it would be next time I was there. Society was ever changing and in order to be able to look back and appreciate life- I’d have to be able to live in the present and store those memories (whether it be in my head or on my iPhone).
The High Line is such an amazing place because it sums up the uniqueness of New York’s history. We welcomed so many immigrants, and gave them jobs. This lead to further development, private and federal businesses. Eventually, this impacted technology and societal development. And now we are here. Furthermore, the High Line breaks today’s norms and make it OK to walk around alone, inspect, write and take pictures.
