Chelsea Market & High Line

The weather forecast looks good: We're on for Monday. Please meet in the North Lobby at 10:30 a.m. We'll take the 6 train to 51st Street, then transfer to the E train to 14th Street. From their we'll walk west on 14th Street, then north on Hudson (which turns into 9th Avenue). Chelsea Market is on 9th Avenue, between 15th and 16th Street.

The Chelsea Market is a huge food market in what used to be the meatpacking district of Manhattan. It describes itself as "a neighborhood market with a global perspective." This food mall occupies a full city block, in what used to be the factory for the National Biscuit Company. With 35 vendors, selling a wide variety of foods, it's popular with New York foodies as well as domestic and international tourists.

The Chelsea Market is also home to NY1, a popular cable news channel in New York that often hosts BYU interns.

The National Biscuit Company's factory, along with others in the meatpacking district were once served by an elevated rail line that has since been reclaimed as an innovative city park, called The High Line. That will be our next stop: After exploring the market, we'll walk to 17th Street and 10th Avenue and enter the High Line where we'll have a pizza picnic (at which point you're free to explore the park on your own).

The High Line is a mile and a half long park, running along the lower west side of Manhattan. After rail companies stopped using the line in the 1980s, it fell into disrepair. Inspired by a similar elevated park in Paris, plans for the High Line began forming in 1999. Park construction began in 2006 and was completed in phases, between 2007 and 2009.