New York City has acquired the third and final section of the High Line, the old elevated railroad structure on the West Side of Manhattan, from CSX Transportation, clearing the way for completion of the park.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and High Line officials announced on Tuesday that CSX had donated the remaining section, just as it had previously donated the segments south of West 30th Street. The new half-mile segment, which hugs the West Side railyards, runs west from 30th Street and 10th Avenue to 12th Avenue and then continues north to 34th Street.
Design of the new portion of the High Line is already under way. Construction is expected to begin later this year.
“In the three short years since the first section opened as a park, the High Line has become a treasured neighborhood oasis, a significant generator of economic activity for the entire city and a celebrated icon for planners, designers and leaders around the world,” Mr. Bloomberg said.
The new section of the park will offer visitors “sweeping views of New York City’s skyline and the Hudson River,” said Adrian Benepe, the commissioner of the parks department.
The new portion borders the 26-acre Hudson Yards mixed-use neighborhood that is now being developed by Related Companies and Oxford Properties Group. When completed, that project will include more than 12 million square feet of new office, residential, retail and cultural space. Last fall, the city announced that Coach Inc. would buy more than 600,000 square feet in the first tower on the Hudson Yards site, at 30th Street and 10th Avenue, the current terminus of the High Line park.
The High Line is owned by the city but maintained and operated by Friends of the High Line, the nonprofit group that had rallied to save it from demolition after it fell into disuse as a freight rail line.