Ever wonder what it would be like if, instead of skyscrapers and the Hudson River, you saw tigers and bison while walking on New York City’s High Line? Minnesota Zoo director John Frawley did.
The zoo, if you recall, has its own abandoned railway, which had been sitting dormant since the monorail stopped running a decade ago.
“It became a priority project to make the monorail track more useful,” Frawley says. And over the past few years, the zoo team, along with Snow Kreilich Architects and Buro Happold, an engineering and design firm that worked on the High Line itself, created the Treetop Trail—a pedestrian boardwalk looping through the zoo grounds atop the original monorail track, three stories above the ground.
At 1.25 miles, Frawley says, it’s the longest elevated pedestrian loop in the world. And it’s probably the only one that affords top-down views of bison, moose, camels, tigers, and more.
The Treetop Trail opens July 28. 13000 Zoo Blvd., Apple Valley
8
Width of the path, in feet. Some areas expand to 12 feet and have benches.
15
Approximate percentage of zoo-goers who actually rode the monorail when it was in service.
$35 Million
Approximate cost to create the Treetop Trail, paid for in public funding and private partnerships, with $11 million coming directly from the state of Minnesota. A mile of the High Line, by contrast, cost $152.3 million.
2013
Year the monorail stopped running—35 years after the zoo (and, eventually, monorail) first opened—due to low ridership and the high cost of necessary repairs.
32
Distance the trail rises off the ground, in feet.
5
Number of years the Treetop Trail has officially been in the works.