MANHATTAN, N.Y. (PIX11) — The High Line is building a bridge to a new avenue in Manhattan.
The elevated walkway off the area known as the spur at West 30th and Tenth Avenue includes a wooden bridge that connects to Manhattan West. That dining and shopping center is along Ninth Avenue, directly across from Moynihan Train Hall.
The wooden bridge is as long as a city block. It was installed during the weekend, and crews are putting the finishing touches on the area to be known as the connector. It’s set to open by the end June.
The new elevated walkways that include the original abandoned train tracks will be 1.5-miles long.
Helen and Juan were enjoying a walk along the structures. “You don’t have to worry about the cars and crossing the street. It’s a different feeling,” they said.
When the new pathways open in the next few weeks, pedestrians could travel from Ninth Avenue to 12th Avenue and north to south along a nearly 20-block stretch from the village to 34th Street.
Alan van Capelle is the High Line’s executive director. “New Yorkers are hungry for new and visionary projects,” he said.
There are new public art sights, as well. Ideas are always being discussed about future expansions.
“We have lots of ideas. We will see how visitors experience this and it will inform what we do next,” he said.
Gino says it will change his commute. “I get up here on the bridge and take the High Line all the way to 28th [Street],” he said.
The first section opened on the south end of the abandoned railroad tracks in the village in 2009. The north side connects to 34th Street.
The High Line is a public park in Manhattan. Friends of the High Line reports that it raises nearly all of the High Line’s annual budget.
