Photo of the Week

 
More cowboys here!

 

It's ridiculously hot today. Of course, on the High Line construction site, that just means things are a little sexier than usual.

   

Summer is just around the corner, or so this 80-degree day would have us believe. Above, sunset at the rail yards, last summer. It's hard to beat that golden light filtering through the smog over New Jersey.

This one was taken before construction began, in the fall of 2005. In the foreground, the High Line runs above the (soon to be gone) Chelsea Car Wash, before ducking through the former Cudahy Meatpacking plant.

  This 4-inch praying mantis was spotted on the Rail Yards section, above 30th Street.

 

Another rainy day up on the Line. Raindrops (and abandoned flip flops) found their way into one of the test pits dug on the High Line before construction began. This shot is from 2005.

Previous Photo of the Week:

This is one of our favorite historical images. The West Side Cowboys were employed by the City to ride in front of street-level freight trains and wave pedestrians out of the way. This was the City's stopgap measure to stop the carnage on what was known as "Death Avenue." The Cowboys were phased out after the High Line was built, raising train traffic to the third story of industrial buildings. The cowboy above is from the 1930's, when the High Line was being built, and the structure is visible in the background. The cowboy below dates from 1911, before the High Line was a glimmer in its daddy's eye.

Photo from Shorpy.com, the 100-Year-Old Photo Blog. Note the guy with the pegleg.
After the jump, the 1934 London Terrace Tatler waxes eloquent about the Cowboys and their brave ponies.