Central Park, Schmentral Park.

New York’s most famous green space is about to become old news. In terms of public parkland, there’s a new kid on the block.

Twenty-two blocks, actually. New York’s latest development, the High Line, stretches 1.45 miles along Manhattan’s West Side, from Gansevoort Street, in the Meatpacking District, up through Chelsea to 34th Street. But it’s not your average urban park — at its broadest, it is only 60ft wide, and it’s between 18ft and 30ft high.

Yes, high. The High Line runs along a disused elevated rail line that, for most of the 20th century, carried freight up and down one side of the island. The last train ran in 1980, pulling three carloads of frozen turkeys. After that, a lot of the line fell into disrepair, with weeds and grasses pushing up between the tracks.

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According to one High Line official, one of mayor Rudy Giuliani’s last acts in office, in 2001, was to sign the demolition order for the line. Then, thanks to a timely intervention by the office’s next incumbent, Michael Bloomberg, as well as considerable campaigning by the action group Friends of the High Line (which counts the actor Edward Norton among its most vigorous advocates), it was saved for greater things.

Next month, the first section will open as an elevated public space, with spectacular views over the Hudson River and of the New York skyline.

What’s it going to be like? Well, I walked the length of the first section — from Gansevoort to 20th Street — and it was a surreal experience. New York is a noisy, angry city, full of honks, shouts and squeals, but only a few feet above it all, it’s surprisingly peaceful. Sure, it might be a bit less so once it’s fully open to a honking, shouting, squealing public — and their no doubt even more vocal offspring — but I can understand claims that the High Line will offer a little peace away from the pavement. Sorry, sidewalk.

It’s going to look pretty special, too, but then so it should for £112m. Proposals to design the new park were submitted by 720 teams from 36 countries: Field Operations, an American landscape architecture firm, together with Diller Scofidio + Renfro, were awarded the contract.

They’ve used plenty of steel and exposed concrete, running in parallel lines, to reference the High Line’s original incarnation, as well as glass in places. Sleek curves give it a contemporary feel.

There are water features, children’s play areas, viewing platforms, sun decks with what looked like rock-solid loungers — it was hard to tell, they were still wrapped in layer upon layer of plastic sheeting — and spaces earmarked for public performances and exhibitions.

It sounds great, and it’s not often a public space of this size (even if it is a bit thin) gets to be designed from the ground up. Literally.

From your elevated position, you get to play hide-and-seek with the horizon, visible down valleys of brick and building as you walk past block after block. Along other stretches, however, there are uninterrupted views out to Staten Island and the Statue of Liberty, and the sunsets are pretty special.

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