Photograph by Diane Cook and Len Jenshel

An abandoned rail line has become an elevated park known as the High Line. Dense plantings at the southern end heighten the contrast with the old steel structure as well as with the cityscape. The Standard Hotel, one of three buildings that cross over the High Line, is on the right.

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Photograph by Diane Cook and Len Jenshel

The High Line once stretched farther into lower Manhattan, often passing right through factories. That southernmost section was torn down in the 1960s, long before any thought of turning the line into a park.

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Photograph by Diane Cook and Len Jenshel

A kiss is perhaps the only reason to miss the view over Tenth Avenue that the architects made one of the High Line park’s main focal points. Their design turned what could have been an ordinary bridge into a striking urban amphitheater, with wooden bleachers stepping down to a window right above the traffic.

Photograph by Diane Cook and Len Jenshel

The summer sky and a sundress brighten the shaded “slow stairs” of the High Line’s 14th Street entrance, which earned the nickname because of the extended platforms between flights.

Photograph by Diane Cook and Len Jenshel

The Caledonia, with its walls of glass, is one of many apartment houses newly constructed along the High Line.

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Photograph by Diane Cook and Len Jenshel

Some portions of the High Line encourage an urban stroll, but the Chelsea Market Passage, at 15th Street, feels more like a balcony, positioned to overlook the city and the Hudson River beyond. It is rarely more tranquil than early on a clear evening, as the glowing color of sunset fades from the sky.

Photograph by Diane Cook and Len Jenshel

Valerie Hegarty’s painting “Autumn on the Hudson Valley With Branches” plays backdrop to a fashion shoot over West 20th Street, where the park’s renovated section ends and the Chelsea Thicket begins.

Photograph by Diane Cook and Len Jenshel

Naomi Goldberg Haas’s dance company performed Autumn Crossing last fall in the Chelsea Market Passage, a covered portion of the High Line designated for public art and special events.

Photograph by Diane Cook and Len Jenshel

An ice cream truck offers visitors a treat at Gansevoort and Washington Streets, the south end of the High Line.

Photograph by Diane Cook and Len Jenshel

Above the commotion of 14th Street, young stargazers take a closer look at the skies in a session run by the Amateur Astronomers Association. The group meets on the High Line every Tuesday night from April through October.

Photograph by Diane Cook and Len Jenshel

The High Line glides across the bustling avenues of Chelsea, past the wavy modernism of Frank Gehry and Jean Nouvel glowing at left. Gehry’s building is the shorter one; Nouvel’s is the taller one behind it.

Photograph by Diane Cook and Len Jenshel

Workers installed trees in the second section of the High Line last summer so plantings could take root and flourish before the spring opening of the next phase of the park, a half-mile stretch extending from 20th Street to 30th Street.

Photograph by Diane Cook and Len Jenshel

Not long ago, the entire length of the High Line was an unkempt jumble of weeds and wildflowers. The third and last segment, to the north of 30th Street, still is.

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Photograph by Diane Cook and Len Jenshel

The unrenovated northern portion of the High Line turns westward, bringing the structure almost to the Hudson River. The rail company CSX still owns the section, but Friends of the High Line hope one day it will be part of the park. If that happens, the Fourth of July view witnessed by a staff member from the group and her companion could be enjoyed by many New Yorkers.

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