by Emily Steinberg
This past Saturday I walked the Reading Viaduct with Sarah McEneaney and John Struble, founding members of the Reading Viaduct Project. The RVP website describes the Viaduct, built in the 1890's as "a combination of embankment sections, bridged by steel structures and arched masonry bridges, that runs 10 blocks through the Callowhill and Chinatown North neighborhoods, from Vine Street to Fairmount Avenue." It is a part of the city that desperately needs a green space.
I was amazed at the potential of the place. In it's present abandoned state it is other-worldly, quiet and over grown, a vast raised open space in the middle of a modern city. Up there, Philadelphia is made new, with unexpected views of her surrounding neighborhoods.
Imagine the hulking, 19th century railroad structure as an elevated oasis in the middle of center city Philadelphia. A place to walk, run bike, hang out, read, get a beer or do whatever you do when out and about in the city. New York created the amazing High Line park. The Reading Viaduct has been a project in waiting for almost a decade. Now is the time, with Green 2015, to push forward and make it a reality. Mayor Nutter, make this a crowning point of your legacy. It can, and should, happen here.
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Thanks so much for writing about this. This is the first that I've heard about or read about it! Will have to take a closer look at all of it before I can give more informed comments, but as someone who has many times enjoyed the High Line these past couple of years when visiting NYC, and have always been fond of great uses for old rails, etc., such as the Rails to Trails projects which have transformed many old RR tracks in the US to bike/walking paths, I love the sound of this project. There is so much that could be done to make our cities/lives more liveable, and our spaces more green. Thanks to you for raising awareness about this and other things through your blog. - Ann Forstater
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