The Old High Line

I first heard of the High Line when I stumbled into a gallery in Chelsea, and saw photographs by Joel Sternfeld of the natural beauty of this abandoned elevated rail line, overgrown with all kinds of weeds and grasses.  It was like a meadow in the sky and it was stunning!  The rest, as they say, is history.  You have seen so many of my photographs of this wonderful garden and walkway in the sky.  They began the renovation by removing all the railroad tracks, and ballast and then cleaning and painting all the original steel beams and supports, before replacing ballast and tracks and soil, and then by planting gardens among the tracks.   But I discovered on my most recent visit something that I must have seen before, but which hadn't registered completely, and that was that they have left a long section of tracks in their original state at the north end of the park.  And that's what caught my eye on this trip.  I am so glad they realized the importance of what was there before the renovation.  It has a beauty all its own, don't you think?