REBIRTH FOR MANHATTAN’S WEST SIDE The High Line BY OTTO M. VONDRAK/PHOTOS AS NOTED
SOME OF THE EARLIEST RAILROADS in America were built in New York City. The humble New York & Harlem, which would become the cornerstone for Cornelius Vanderbilt’s New York Central empire, was chartered in 1831. Yet it wasn’t until 20 years later that the competing Hudson River Railroad was completed from its terminal on Manhattan’s West Side all the way to Albany. By 1863, Vanderbilt controlled the Harlem and Hudson railroads, and had combined them with his New York Central in 1869. The successful New York Central & Hudson River Railroad enjoyed a veri- table monopoly on railroad transporta- tion, having the only direct route into New York City for both freight and pas-
senger traffic. All other railroads wish- ing to serve the city were forced to ferry their passengers or to put their freight cars on barges across the Hudson River to connect to the island of Manhattan. The Pennsylvania Railroad broke this monopoly when they completed their tunnels under the Hudson and opened Penn Station in 1910, yet the West Side Line continued to carry the lion’s share of freight directly into the city. With New York Central routing the majority of their passenger trains into Grand Central Depot by 1871, opera- tion of the former HRR line down the West Side was dedicated to freight. A large freight terminal was built at the southern end of the line at St. John’s Park, along where Washington Street
meets Houston Street. Much of the route ran down the middle of 10th Av- enue, and competed with heavy street traffic serving the docks. Steam en- gines were shrouded to covered the me- chanical motion that might otherwise frighten horses. Flagmen on horse- back, the so-called “Tenth Avenue Cow- boys,” carefully guarded each train as it made its way down the street. Into the 20th century, the traffic problem only worsened, and the trains operating on the West Side were con- sidered to be more than a nuisance. In 1929, the city and the railroad agreed to rebuild the West Side Line to allevi- ate the problem.
From the junction with the Hudson Division at Spuyten Duyvil, the West
Looking east from the corner of 11th Avenue and 30th Street in New York City, New York Central Alco RS-2 8350 idles high above the city traffic on April 13, 1957. The freight route was known officially as the “30th Street Branch” but more commonly called the “West Side Line.” Abandoned by Conrail in 1984, the elevated structure south of 30th Street was transformed into the innovative High Line Park starting in 2009. Since opening, the park has also encouraged new development along Manhattan’s formerly industrial Lower West Side. PHOTO BY JIM SHAUGHNESSY
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