By Anthony Laneau
If you want to impress a date with romance, the High Line has to be at the top of your list. It’s more than just a stroll through the park. It has everything needed to make even the most boring date, fun.
The best way to experience the High Line is at sunset, around 6pm, when the park is less crowded and the weather is more brisk. I’m French and the French are famous for romance. At sunset, the High Line is a French person’s paradise.
The High Line is like a little Central Park. As you walk through Meatpacking, Chelsea and Midtown West, you see different views of the city. From the elevated High Line, the city looks deceivingly quiet and distant, as you walk under trees, next to large buildings and into the open space.
Highline Park Built for Conversations
The High Line is great for dates because it was created for conversation and we all know the best dates begin and end with the best conversation. You can’t walk through the park and not say anything. The views just stimulate your mind and thoughts, igniting new conversations.
And when your feet get tired, there is are plenty of space to sit down, rest and soak up the view. There are seats throughout the walk, or you can just sit on the grass and overlook the bustling 10th Avenue or quiet streets in Chelsea.
But if you do run out of things to say, here is a little history on the High Line to keep the conversation flowing.
The High Line was originally constructed in 1847, when New York City authorized a street-level railroad down Manhattan’s West Side. It opened to trains in 1934. The High Line originally ran from 34th Street to St. John’s Park Terminal, at Spring Street. It continued to be developed over the next 20 years, but in the 1950s, the growth of trucking led to a drop in rail traffic throughout the nation. That was the beginning of the end of the High Line.
In the mid-1980s, powerful property owners with land under the line lobbied for the demolition of the entire structure. In 1999, the non-profit Friends of the High Line was formed to save the High Line and they advocated for the Line’s preservation and reuse as public open space, an elevated park or greenway.
The rest is history.
