This books about the High Line documents the "found park" that existed after freight trains stopped running on the elevated railway and before it was transformed into an expensive and popular park. The carpet of green formed by seeds that blew onto the elevated surface was one of the strongest arguments for keeping the infrastructure and making it a public green space. Joel Sternfeld's photos of the pre-High Line High Line were one of the most important elements in convincing skeptical politicians and landowners to support the efforts of the Friends of the High Line. His photos in the New Yorker in 2001 that were accompanied by the words of Adam Gopnik brought the found beauty to a wider audience, both in New York City and beyond. Those photos and words were made into Walking the High Line in 2001.

A portion of the park's third section (on the west side of Hudson Yards) preserves the wildflowers and other plants that bloomed in the interim, but when that stretch is made up like the rest of the park all that will survive of the in-between years are photographs – and Sternfeld's are easily the best. No wonder Walking the High Line was reprinted in 2009, coinciding with the opening of the High Line's first section. ( )