NY's Historical Rail Trail | the HIGH LINE | How it Became Manhattan

I know we're talking about New York City, but let's just take a second to look at the Nile River from space

Surrounding this river in Egypt, you can see that most of the settlements pop up along the water

and greenery gets more dense the closer you get to the banks. This same thing happens with public transit lines as the city grows

Train lines and main thoroughfares are like rivers. people gather around them to get connected to the city

In this lesson, I want to show you how New York's transit connections shaped the contours of the city and created the metropolis that we know today

Manhattan is pretty crowded today, but the streets of downtown Manhattan used to be way more crowded

City limits at the time meant that the entire city was limited to this downtown portion of the island

And there was no subway, there was no elevated railroads, there was only horses and buggies

And on top of all of that, they started putting trains in the middle of the roads, next to all the pedestrians

These trains started expanding the limits of this city, bringing industry and residential areas to other parts of Manhattan

There were numerous trains running along the avenues of Manhattan, including 9th Avenue

right through a neighborhood developed for industry called Chelsea. Chelsea had tons of warehouses for production

and the businesses needed a way to get their goods in and out of these warehouses

which is why the city established a train that ran along 9th Avenue in 1846

It spanned longer than a city block and caused so much traffic on the already crowded streets

that men on horseback would ride in front of the train to clear the path

Even with these precautions, the train caused so many injuries and so many deaths that 9th Avenue earned the nickname Death Avenue

The city needed a better solution So two innovative things started happening with trains One above ground and one below ground In 1863 over in England they were working on a revolutionary idea What if they

built tunnels underground and then fed trains through them? This would move a lot of the mass

transit underground and it was working and so in the United States they wanted to do the same thing

here. The United States first underground train opened in 1897 in Boston. So New York City wanted

to try it too. But the city didn't want steam trains underground. This is what was happening

in London, and the ash and the soot would fill the tunnels and make it very difficult to breathe

So they played with a couple different ideas first. So there was a guy who privately built a tunnel

under a block of Broadway and built a pneumatic train. This subway would go back and forth on the

block, just powered by a fan. It was pretty weird, and it worked, but it was super, super slow. It

It only operated for a couple of years before it was shut down. But at the time, electricity had just recently come to the city

So eventually, one company created an electric train that ran off an electrified third rail

that ran alongside the standard two rails of the train track. And it was a success

The first New York City subway opened in 1904, and it quickly became the largest system in the country

which it still is today. Soon, this city, once crowded and disconnected

became woven together through a series of public transportation railways connecting Manhattan to Brooklyn and Queens

People in Manhattan began to see how the city was expanding and began to realize that they could commute to work

using mass transit from further distances. This led to an explosion of construction uptown

as well as a lot of people moving to Brooklyn and Queens. While these subways expanded beneath the city

there was another experiment happening. Not underground, but elevated above the streets

So back to the neighborhood of Chelsea and the Death Avenue train that ran along 9th Avenue

killing people as it plowed down the street. So to solve the issue, the city decided to

reconstruct this area using one of the new innovative train concepts the subway or the elevated train And between these two choices they decided to build elevated tracks Thus began construction on an elevated railroad

30 feet above the streets. The high up tracks ran next to the warehouses

and even straight through some of them, allowing the businesses to load their goods

onto the train directly from the warehouse with ease. So what was once a street level train

became an elevated train that wouldn't encounter traffic. and it became known as the High Line

This elevated train mostly brought in food supplies for companies in the area. You can actually see right behind me where the trains used to come into the building

where they would drop off their supplies. And it's in this building, actually, that the Oreo was invented

So the trains coming in right here were bringing the flour that created the very first Oreo cookies

The High Line also transported meat from the meatpacking district just below Chelsea

where at the height of the manufacturing era in Manhattan, butchers slaughtered livestock for meat production

in many of the warehouses throughout the area. When World War II came

almost all of the production efforts of this area were shifted toward the war

Production ramped up and these trains were being used constantly. After the war, the US had reconstruction programs

that led to the construction of the US highway system. This highway system changed the way

that goods were moved around the country. Because of this, trucks began taking a lot of the loads

and the trains that ran along the High Line were used much less frequently

Then, eventually, in the 50s and 60s, it completely fell into disuse

Slowly, parts of the track were torn down and others just abandoned

Eventually, it was going to be entirely torn down when one community banded together in 1999

to save the High Line. They proposed the idea to turn it into a park

This idea was modeled after a park in France, La Promenade Plantée

which is also built on old rail lines. So this is the High Line today

It runs from around 34th Street all the way down to 14th Street

As you walk around the neighborhood of Chelsea you can see it as it weaves in and out of the buildings To get up here you just need to find one of the many staircases that bring you up to the elevated tracks If you walk along the High Line today you can still see the

metal tracks with grass and flowers popping up between the rails and in the

meatpacking district at the end of the High Line all those warehouses were turned into bars and boutique shops. Likewise throughout the once industrial

neighborhood of Chelsea many of the old warehouses were converted into art

galleries, which is what the area is known for today. Such warehouses and train tracks like the ones I'm standing on show the industry that

used to exist in this area, but it didn't extend far beyond this neighborhood

And today it shows the transition that's happened between the industrial age here in Manhattan

and the now cultural center that it is. The reason millions of people visit this park today is because it's a unique reuse project

that merges history with the present. And it gives you a unique high up perspective to see the city unfolding beneath you

The construction of this park led to major development in this area and a rise in property

value around the High Line. So you'll see a lot of new nice buildings mixed in with the old brick buildings that

were originally here. Today you can download an app that will tell you about the High Line as you're walking

along it. You could also choose to start or end your walk here at the Chelsea Market which is this

beautifully restored warehouse behind me. And it's where the Nabisco factory used to be

The market now is a collection of boutique shops, an impressive dining hall, and an art space

And I highly recommend that you stop there along your route. Trains helped expand New York into what it is today

Whether they were steam locomotives or cable cars in the street, electrified railways below ground

or elevated tracks high above ground. We can clearly see how trains allowed people to live

and work in proximity to transportation options. Trains caused industry to grow

and through that industry eventually became a place for art and greenery and culture

We can still see traces of that past amid overgrowth of new plants and flowers

In the next lesson, we're gonna keep moving uptown to the most popular place in New York City, Times Square