ABOUT a year ago, I wandered over to the High Line extension above 10th Avenue and West 30th Street, and then continued south on 10th Avenue to document the High Line from the ground. Originally, this spur brought mail traffic into the United States Postal Service Morgan Processing & Distribution Center, facing 9th Avenue at West 30th and built in 1933, a year before the railroad. This is now a public plaza allowing views of 10th Avenue north and south as well as 30th Street.
The Morgan, constructed in 1933, is now Manhattan’s main post office after the closure of the James Farley Building, at 8th Avenue between 31st and 33rd Street (its 8th avenue retail windows remain open) and dominates the SW corner of West 30th and 9th Avenue.
Looked at in any number of ways, the Morgan plant — named for Edward M. Morgan, the postmaster of New York from 1907 to 1917 — is a staggering example of federal logistics and enough to make one finally let go of one’s conception of the Postal Service as a third-tier operation mainly concerned with the avoidance of barking dogs. The plant itself is preposterously large: At 2.2 million square feet, it takes up an entire city block. It handles up to 12 million pieces of New York City’s mail every day. [NYTimes]
Long before the Morgan Processing and Distribution Center was built, this was the site of a depot for the Hudson River Railroad, a precursor of our Metro-North. President-Elect Abraham Lincoln arrived in NYC for a visit in the runup to the inaguration on March 4th, 1861, traveling from Springfield, IL by train beginning February 11th with stops in Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany, Poughkeepsie, Peekskill and then New York on February 19th.
The plaza also hosts large art installations, like this pigeon sculpture, “Dinosaur,” by Colombian sculptor Iván Argote, which will be in place till late 2026. The title likely refers to the position held by many scientists and zoologists that birds are modern-day descendants of dinosaurs. In April 2026, Dinosaur flew off to other roosts, leaving the space for a new installation.
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4/7/26