The High Line at Dusk

Gansevoort to 34th Street, a mile and a half of elevated park on decommissioned freight rails. Enter at 14th Street and walk north as the evening light hits the Hudson and Hudson Yards glass. The steel rails embedded in the concrete glow. Piet Oudolf's plantings — grasses, wildflowers, perennials — are designed to look like nature reclaiming the tracks.

The 10th Avenue Square near 17th has a viewing window framing the avenue below like a theater. Further north, the Interim Walkway passes through the old rail yard where self-seeded trees grow between rails — proof that the High Line's idea (nature and city coexisting) is observable fact.

Sunset Tuesday in October. Crowds thin, light low and golden, cool enough for a jacket. Enter at 14th, exit at 23rd. Walk home through Chelsea with the evening settling. The High Line on a crowded summer Saturday, for the record, is a shoulder-to-shoulder shuffle that makes the subway feel spacious. Come at dusk or don't bother.