Manhattan is famous for its fantastic public spaces as much as for its urban density, from Central Park to Washington Square. Soon it will have unique public space to add to this roster: The High Line. This abandoned, elevated railroad track, which is about two stories high and runs a mile and a third along the western edge of the city, from 34th Street to Gansevoort Street, is being converted into a public park of sorts. When complete, the High Line will be a green prominade, lined with gardens and pubic art, snaking through Chelsea’s gallery district down to the edge of the West Village.

The project is inspired by a similar space in Paris. During the early 1990s, the city of Paris successfully converted an elevated rail viaduct near the Bastille opera house into a three-mile pedestrian walkway called the Promenade Plantée. It crosses the entire 12th arrondissement from the Place de la Bastille to the Bois de Vincennes at the eastern edge of Paris.

Friends of the High Line, which has raised funds to back the project, battled to spare the rail line from the wrecking ball during the Rudy Giuliani administration. With Mayor Michael Bloomberg behind the idea, the city took over the property, with construction work beginning in April 2006. The first section of the project (Gansevoort to 20th Streets) is due to be completed in 2008. Check out these images of the High Line just before contruction on the project began, as well as historical images from the 1930s of the thing going up in the first place