New York Central RR High

West Side TKThe rise ? and fall of Manhattan s High Line by Joe Greenstein 1934: nearly complete, the two-track High Line will lift trains out of nearby Tenth Avenue. New York Central © 201 Kalmbach Publishing Co. This material may not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher. www.TrainsMag.com itm r* .. : 1 . 1 4tl * * ': 1* *'::. ,. * j ** % t * * m ? " '' % * m > wmg m ': ** ' f<P 4 5$ :f/Y ? \ if -\ fi n '% ft 2001: wildflowers grace the moribund High Line Al above Long Island's car yard at 30th Street. silent, an old rail road viaduct still winds its State-of-the-art St. John's Park Terminal way down Manhattan's West anchored the south end of the High Line. Side. Once a bustling New York Central freight line, it hasGhostlynot seen a train for 20 and of the railbank a federal to this years, conservancy, preserve unique vestige of Man most New Yorkers barely notice the program that converts unused rail hattan's industrial past. Indeed, in view drab structure. But the "High Line" has rights-of-way to recreational trails, with of recent catastrophic events here, the sparked an impassioned debate between the understanding that railroads may idea of paying homage to the city's it is an his reclaim them. In to those who think important someday opposition transportation history has taken on a is the Chelsea torical legacy worth preserving, and this idea Property Owners new poignancy. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime those who view it as an ugly impedi Group, which views the High Line as a opportunity," he said. "The High Line ment to the area's economic growth. colossal white elephant that depresses was originally built for the public good, and On the one side is Friends of the property values inhibits commercial and we'd like to see it returned to the High Line, a group that would like to development. public good." a 1 .45- Friends co-founder Robert Ham see the viaduct transformed into The property owners thinks the pub mile elevated park, under the auspices mond sees railbanking as the ideal way lic good would best be served by tearing 56 TRAINS I MARCH 2002 W. 44th W. 43rd Amtrak to Albany W. 42nd Line W. 41st High highlights W. 40th 3/8 mile I W. 39th B 2002, Kalmbach Publishing Co., TRAINS; Robert Wegner W. 38th cut runs north to NYC's 60th St. Yard. ' Blow-grade Original ascending grade, which started at 35th St., W. 37th was rebuilt along 34th St. in 1986 to accommodate Javits convention center. This section reconfigured in W. 36th 1991 to allow Amtrak trains from Albany and points W. 35th west access to Penn Station. Long Island R. R. John D. Caemmerer W. 34th (former NYC 30th St.) Yards. Amtrak to W. 33rd Boston General Penn W. 31st Long Island Post Office Station R. R.to W, 30th Jamaica U. S. Postal Service W. 29th Parcel Post Center W. 28th W. 27th W. 26th R.C. Williams & Company Grocery warehouse is now W. 25th a storage building for ABC. W. 24th W. 23rd Spear & Company Now apartments and galleries. W. 22nd Guardian Angel Church W. 21st W. 20th W. 19th W. 18th W. 17th Co. Cudahy Packing W. 16th Built around the High Line. Now used by Eastern Meats W. 15th kosher meat distributor. W. 14h W. 13th Swift & Co W. 12th Manhattan Refrigerating Co. High Line originally ran through. * %Now converted to apartments. \, 3 Bell Telephone Laboratories High Line punched through without disturbing delicate ,*' equipment irtside. Today's the line down. It contends the structure Westbeth Artists Housing retains a bit of the viaduct. is a public hazard, as evidenced by St. John's falling chunks of concrete and steel that Park freight terminal Second-floor platforms linked to indicate an advanced state of decay. trucking bays by 14 elevators and "Not so," said Debra Frank, a spokes a five-ton hoist. Closed in 1960's for conversion to St. John's Center. person for CSX Transportation, which & inherited the line in its portion of the 1999 Conrail acquisition. "It was origi nally designed to hold two fully loaded freight trains at one time," she said, and added that the basic structure is still sound. That conclusion is supported by several engineering studies, including ^y)J?rst one completed by Conrail in the 1980s. /^$> East Mayor Rudolph Giuliani Outgoing New York railroads circa 1960 had sided with Chelsea property own (Not all lines shown.) ers, new mayor Mike Bloomberg seems Prior to the High Line, trains, trucks, and wagons jam 11th Avenue, nicknamed "Death Avenue" for the frequent collisions. to favor preservation, and Friends is another half block to reach the U.S. Post gaining political clout: supporters now Office's Morgan Parcel Post Building. include high-profile politicians, arch The High Line's crown jewel was the itects, artists, and entertainers. St. John's Park Terminal, a huge freight- house at its southernmost point just TRAINS TAKE TO THE SKY above Spring Street. This 800-foot-long, The High Line was born in the 1920s three-story structure had eight railroad to resolve congestion on Manhattan's tracks with a capacity of 150 freight West Side. Confrontations between bur cars. Fourteen elevators transferred geoning automobile and truck traffic freight down to street-level docks with and street-running freight trains in this spaces for 127 trucks. At the south end warehouse and industrial district were of the building, a five-ton hoist handled occurring with increasingly disastrous especially heavy loads. Equipped with a consequences one local thoroughfare, sprinkler system, built of concrete, and 11th Avenue, was nicknamed "Death virtually fireproof, St. John's Park Ter Avenue." Something had to be done. minal was state-of-the-art for the era. The solution was to eliminate all the Work began in 1925, but the 13-mile grade crossings by realigning, and in project was not completed until 1935. places elevating, New York Central's With appropriate fanfare, the High Line West Side freight line. Driving this as was dedicated on June 28, 1934. From probably no one else could or would that date onward, the railroad ran 14 was the autocratic and monomaniacal feet above the city streets. Robert Moses, public works czar of New Some of the High Line's customers York City whose legacy includes over 50 had second-storv lineside loading docks, major bridges, tunnels, expressways, while others had spur tracks directly and parks. into their buildings. A few large busi Moses, hardly a friend of the railroad nesses used freight elevators to lift companies, wanted to build a limited- trucks from the street up to track level, access expressway along the Hudson to speed unloading of freight cars. River on Manhattan's West Side. This High Line motive power was com required an accommodation with the pletely appropriate for a modern urban New York Central, and thus was born railroad of the 1930s: NYC's tri-power the West Side Improvement plan. box-cabs (diesel-electric, third-rail elec Though it's likely both Moses and the tric, and storage-battery electric). New York Central viewed the plan as a deal with the devil, it served the pur RELIC OF A FADING ERA poses of all concerned. The plan called New York Central was the only trunk for the complete reconstruction and line with an all-land freight route into realignment of the Central's freight-ded New York City. But by the 1960s, it was icated line extending south into Man becoming clear that running freight hattan from the Water Level Route in trains onto the island of Manhattan was the Bronx. Most of the right-of-way a money-losing proposition. The golden passed through Riverside Park, where a age of railroading was at its end, and new highway was to be built directly nowhere was this more evident than in above the tracks, which followed the Gotham, where the patterns of com river as far as the Central's 60th Street merce were shifting and the price of Yard, then curved inland a few blocks doing business was soaring. Much of and passed through a new cut. the city was now served entirely by The elevated portion of the West Side truck. Rail-borne cargo destined to the had already been demolished, from Freight Line, known as the High Line, city was increasingly routed to west-of- Gansevoort Street to the St. John's Park new Hudson then began at West 35 th Street. Here the railheads, trucked in. Terminal. Five years later, a section of alignment turned west, then south, in Construction of the Jacob Javits Con the West Side line was reconfigured to order to gain enough distance to climb vention Center, which opened in 1986, allow Amtrak Empire Corridor trains the of over the Central's 30th Street Yard (now required realignment the High from Albany and points beyond to enter Line's at 35th Street. a commuter-car yard for the Long ascending grade Pennsylvania Station. installed a new Island Rail Road). The High Line then Builders grade just south Hopes flickered for a rejuvenation of doubled back east along 30th Street and of 34th Street, but the work was never the High Line in the late 1980s, when curved downtown to parallel 10th Ave completed because by then the High city officials announced their plan to east for Line was without traffic. A out the nue. A two-track spur continued large portion phase giant Fresh Kills landfill 2002 58 TRAINS I MARCH economic unworkable.

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