A Public Space, Elevated@Arch

The High Line, once a railway line for delivering cattle, is now a newly renovated promenade that is ready for strolling.

Photo: Librado Romero/The New York Times

Representative Jerrold Nadler, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, New York City Council speaker Christine Quinn and Manhattan borough president Scott M. Stringer on the High Line on Monday. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg calls the High Line, which opens to the public on Tuesday, “an extraordinary gift to our city’s future.”

Photo: Richard Drew/Associated Press

The first portion of the three-section High Line runs along the Hudson River from Gansevoort Street to West 20th Street.

Photo: Richard Drew/Associated Press

he High Line in 2004.The second, which extends to 30th Street, is expected to be completed by the fall of 2010. The third phase, up to 34th Street, has yet to be approved.

Photo: Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times

The High Line in 2005.The High Line project started in 1999, with a couple of guys who met at a community board meeting and discovered they shared a fervent interest in saving the abandoned railroad trestle, which had been out of commission since 1980 and was slated for demolition.

Photo: James Estrin/The New York Times

A groundbreaking ceremony in 2006.Thus began a decade-long saga that involved rescuing the structure from demolition by the Giuliani administration and enlisting the Bloomberg administration in its preservation and renovation.

Photo: John Marshall Mantel for The New York Times

A worker labors to complete construction, in 2007.City Council speaker Christine C. Quinn described it as “a miracle of perserverance,” and said “the idea could easily have gone into a file, ‘great ideas that will never happen.’”

Photo: Damon Winter/The New York Times

All of the speakers' comments at the opening ceremony on Monday echoed the triumphal — and perhaps somewhat incredulous — subject line of an e-mail put out by Friends of the High Line right after the festivities had concluded: “We did it.”

Photo: Librado Romero/The New York Times

@Source from: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/06/09/arts/20090609_HIGHLINE_SLIDESHOW_index.html