High line

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The High Line: A History

1847-1980

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1847 – New York City approves a street-level railroad on the West Side.

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+1851- 1934 – The railroad is constructed

For many years, men rode in front of trains on horses with flags to try and prevent accidents with traffic. These men were called West Side Cowboys. Yet still, many were killed. 10th Avenue gained the nickname of Death Avenue.

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1929 – After much debate, the City and State of New York and New York Central Railroad decide on a West Side Improvement Project costing over $150 million at the time, or $2 billion today.

The project, including the High Line, was 13 miles long. 105 street-level railroad crossings would be removed and 32 acres would be added to Riverside Park. It also created the Henry Hudson Parkway.

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1934 – The High Line finally opens to trains from 34th Street to St. John’s Park Terminal on Spring Street. The design had it going through the center of blocks to avoid the negative conditions that elevated subways could often cause. Factories and warehouses became connected, the trains going inside the buildings, to transport milk, meat, produce, raw goods, and manufactured goods without creating traffic in the streets.

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+1950s – Across the nation, rail traffic drops as refrigerated trucks on interstates and highways became more convenient ways to ship goods.

1960s – The southern end of the High Line is demolished from Gansevoort Street, down Washington Street, and ending at Clarkson Street. This made up about half the line.

1980 – The last train runs on the High Line’s rails, carrying three carloads of frozen turkeys.

+Since the 1820s, the Meatpacking District had been home to tenements for thousands of people trying to escape epidemics in the main part of the city.

During the 1840s, markets began appearing.

New York named two acres of land after General Peter Gansevoort in 1884. Gansevoort was a hero of the Revolution War and the grandfather to Herman Melville, author of Moby Dick.

The markets became more frequent, for produce at first, and then for meat when reliable refrigeration was developed. This created a switch to a marketplace district.

By 1900, there were 250 slaughterhouses and packing plants in the Meatpacking District. By the 1930s, the Meatpacking District produced the third-largest volume of dressed meats in the nation. These industries were heavily subsidized by the city throughout the beginnings of the 20th century to retain the easy supply of fresh meat and jobs.

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+Chelsea started as a farm, then became an estate for Captain Thomas Clarke and his family. The area was named Chelsea after either a manor in Chelsea, London owned by Sir Thomas More or the Royal Chelsea Hospital for soldiers.

In 1827, parts of the area started being sold off, but with limits. Those who bought the properties could not build stables, start manufacturing or use the property for anything commercial.

Single family homes and rowhouses dominated the area for several decades. Then the Hudson River Railroad cut off Chelsea from the water.

By the Civil War, there were many turpentine and camphene distilleries as well as the Manhattan Gas Works, which made coal into gas. Not long after, there were breweries, lumberyards, more factories and warehouses.

The industrialization of Chelsea drew many immigrants, especially those from Ireland. In order for these immigrants to be in the area they were working, tenements were built for them. Political and ethnic tensions were high in the area with many riots breaking out.

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+In 1897, John Lovejoy Elliot founded the first settlement house.

In contrast to these issues, a theatre district had begun by 1869. There were several production studios and Chelsea became a major place for motion pictures before the first World War.

There were also many interesting apartment complexes in the area. Some had pools, gyms, solariums, and specially dressed doormen. In 1962, Penn South, a cooperative housing development was built. There were also the New York City Housing Authority’s Fulton Houses and Chelsea-Elliot Houses.

In the 1930s, the Art Deco Verizon building was built, taking over an entire block and standing 19 stories tall. Today, the massive structure is being converted into condos.

In the 1940s, large amounts of uranium was stored in a warehouse on West 20th Street for the Manhattan Project, remaining there until the late 1980s or early 1990s.

+Useful Links

http://www.thehighline.org/

http://www.meatpacking-district.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelsea,_Manhattan

http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com