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Daily What?! Tracks on NYC’s High Line Section 3 Are Engraved with Dates

Daily What?! Tracks on NYC’s High Line Section 3 Are Engraved with Dates
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Be sure to look out for some easily missed bits of history on the train tracks of last and final section of the High Line. According to our tour guide from Friends of the High Line, the raised numbers tell the date when the tracks were installed. They served more as reminders to replace the tracks, than as a testament to their historical origins. An Untapped reader has also informed us that “The numbers are raised, not etched or punched, so that would be the date the rails were rolled at the steel mill.”

Our guide said the earliest date he’s found is 1913. We found dates ranging from 1918 to 1925. A portion of the trackbed has already been removed for the first stages of remediation and conversion to The High Line Park.

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Here’s a look back at Carol Bove’s installation, which once dotted the last section of the High Line.The works were subtle plays on the found industrial materials. Through their configuration, shape and placement, the viewer is asked to consider the line between art and industry.

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More info on High Line tours here. See more photos of the High Line Section Three in its earlier, wilder form.

Get in touch with the author @untappedmich.

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