Description

The park extends from Gansevoort Street to 34th Street. At 30th Street, the elevated tracks turn west around the Hudson Yards Redevelopment Project to the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center on 34th Street,though the northern section is expected to be integrated within the Hudson Yards development and the Hudson Park and Boulevard. When the Hudson Yards Redevelopment Project's Western Rail Yard is finished in 2018, it will be elevated above the High Line Park, so an exit along the viaduct will be located over the West Side Yard, exiting out to the Western Rail Yard of Hudson Yards. The 34th Street entrance is at grade level, with wheelchair access. The park is open daily from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the winter, 10 p.m. in the spring and fall, and 11 p.m. in the summer, except for the Interim Walkway west of 11th Avenue, which is open until dusk. It can be reached through eleven entrances, five of which are accessible to people with disabilities. The wheelchair-accessible entrances, each with stairs and an elevator, are at Gansevoort, 14th, 16th, 23rd, and 30th Streets. Additional staircase-only entrances are located at 18th, 20th, 26th, and 28th Streets, and 11th Avenue. Street level access is available at 34th Street via an "Interim Walkway" between 30th Street/11th Avenue and 34th Street.

Attractions

The park's attractions include naturalized plantings that are inspired by the landscape that grew on the disused tracks,and views of the city and the Hudson River. The trail is made of pebble-dash concrete walkways that swells and constricts, swings from side to side, and divides into concrete tines that meld the hardscape with the planting embedded in railroad gravel mulch. Stretches of track and ties recall the High Line's former use. Portions of track are adaptively re-used for rolling lounges positioned for river views.Most of the planting, which includes 210 species, is of rugged meadow plants, including clump-forming grasses, liatris, and coneflowers, with scattered stands of sumac and smokebush, but not limited to American natives. At the Gansevoort Street end, a grove of mixed species of birch already provides some dappled shade by late afternoon. Ipê timber for the built-in benches has come from a managed forest certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, to ensure sustainable use and the conservation of biological diversity, water resources, and fragile ecosystems.