The High Line: the elevated mile and the Meatpacking edge
An old freight rail turned garden in the sky, from the cobbles up to Hudson Yards. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Gansevoort Street & the cobbles
The Meatpacking District still has its Belgian-block streets and a few iron awnings from the days of the actual meat trade. Walk the cobbles for a block before you climb; they're the before-picture for everything above.

2. Whitney Museum of American Art
Renzo Piano's stacked-deck building at the foot of the High Line. You don't have to go in, but the outdoor terraces give you the river on one side and the city on the other for free. The Edward Hopper holdings inside are the reason to come back.

3. Gansevoort stair up to the High Line
Climb here, at the southern end, and walk north. The planting is the trick — Piet Oudolf's wild grasses left to go a little feral, threaded between the original rails. Go slowly; it's not a route, it's a garden.

4. The 10th Avenue Square cutout
Around 17th Street the deck widens into a sunken amphitheatre with a glass wall framing the avenue below — the traffic becomes the view. Sit on the steps and watch the cars run under you toward downtown.

5. Little Island
A short detour west at 13th–14th: the tulip-shaped concrete pots on stilts in the Hudson, a pier turned hill garden. You can skip it and stay up high, but the view back at the city from the middle of the river is the kind you double back for.

6. The Shed & Hudson Yards
The High Line ends in the glass canyon of Hudson Yards, the telescoping shell of The Shed on your left. It's a hard stop after the garden — all steel and money — but the contrast is the lesson. The 7 train is right there.

The High Line: the elevated mile and the Meatpacking edge