The High Line and the Empire State Building

What I love about this Google street view photo is what I love about New York City: So much texture, so much to see, so much history, so much everything, everywhere, with the Empire State Building just barely there, in the corner of your eye.

Google Maps: High Line Park

Built as a better solution to the 19th-century menace of railroad traffic on city streets than urban cowboys leading locomotives, the High Line opened to trains in 1934 -- four years after the groundbreaking for the Empire State Building.

Death defying "West Side Cowboy" leads a train through city streets.

The High Line handled freight trains until 1980, the year that its old friend, the Empire State Building, received its own zip code.

After years of arguments for preservation vs. demolition, hard work by community advocates, the eventual support of the city, and a design competition, the High Line park opened in 2009.

A gorgeous and amazing photo gallery on the High Line site charts its history, from construction, through dereliction and abandonment, to its glorious present rebirth.

And always, in the corner of your eye, the High Line's old friend, the Empire State Building is there.

From the High Line's photo gallery: A locomotive, and the ESB.