In downtown New York City’s far west side there used to be a raised train track for the trains delivering or picking up meat and produce. Completed in 1934, it replaced a former street level train that had been the cause of many fatal accidents. So many that the city hired “cowboys” to ride horses in front on the trains and wave flags to warn cars and pedestrians.
When the new, elevated High Line railway was constructed it ran through the middle of blocks and directly through buildings instead of along the road. This let the trains stop inside the buildings they were delivering to and from. But as years passed trucking became a better shipping option and the number of trains decreased until the line was abandoned. The last cargo was three railcars of frozen turkeys in 1980.
But the High Line wasn’t finished. Parts were torn down and sold but much of the line remained like a largely unnoticed specter floating over busy lower Manhattan. Despite efforts to tear it all down, a group of devoted fans managed to finally convince the city in 2004 to turn it into a park.
Currently it runs about a mile, starting three blocks below 14th Street at Gansevoort Street and ending at 30th Street but another section north of that is in the works for the future.
New Yorkers and visitors walk along pathways that sometimes include the rails of the former tracks and sometimes the rails run alongside with trees and flowers muscling into the rocks and wooden ties.
Change is inevitable. We never know what it will be. Sometimes a thing can look so permanent, like a big set of railroad tracks but it takes very little time for nature to take over. Other times things seem abandoned and cast aside but with enough care they turn into something else.
Take nothing for granted. Things may not be what they appear to be and tomorrow they may be completely different.
Photo by guest blogger Sue Harrison, location NYC.