High Time for High Line On recent visit to New York, I wandered through the first phase of that city'new High Line Park, running parallel, from the West Village to West 20th Street, with the former West Side Drive. It's still a New York thing. The workers I spoke to said that tourists haven't quite figured it out yet. On the morning of my visit, on a weekday, there were no crowds -- but lots of activity (see modeling shoot) and inactivity (basking on a chaise longue). --RDC Philly Has One, Too By Mark Brakeman Cutting a wide swath through northern Center City, the abandoned Reading Viaduct stands as an intractable ghost of training's glorious past, but a small band of preservationists are trying get it to move on to a new dimension. The overhead railway began operating in the 1890s to carry commuter trains from the Reading train shed at 12th and Arch Sts. to points north of the city. It was abandoned in 1984 with the opening of the Center City commuter tunnel. But it has continued to squat in many neighborhoods in that area like an unwelcome guest, and has served as a comfortable bed for the weeds and grasses that have taken it over as their own boudoir. [more...] |