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Is the High Line Cursed?
By
Jen Carlson
Published Jun 18, 2009
Modified Jun 18, 2009
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Jun 18, 2009
Modified Jun 18, 2009
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Spooky! Trainjotting holds a flashlight to its face around a campfire to tell the old tale of Ezekiel Marcus, who died on the West Side tracks in 1934. The site reports that Marcus was a Manhattan native, born in 1899, and worked as a West Side Cowboy, riding horseback "up and down the 20-odd blocks of 10th Avenue to warn pedestrians that the train was coming."
In December 1934, the urban cowboy died after falling off the side of the High Line between Gansevoort and Horatio, on what’s now known as Washington Street. Several hundreds came out to raise a glass to Marcus, and since that day he's returned to haunt those involved with developing the High Line. Or this is all a lie, who knows!
Allegedly Friend of the High Line's Joshua David claims many years ago a man with "a long brown beard and wild brown eyes" told him "in a gravelly voice to ‘leave well enough alone.’ Eighteen months later, it was Hammond’s turn to get a visit from Zeke Marcus. Hammond, a painter, said he was on the phone with the actor Edward Norton, an early champion on the High Line, in his apartment when the ghost of Marcus slipped through a heating duct in his kitchen." Apparently Marcus told him he would "make it rain every day if the place of his death was trampled upon by the masses." And guess what? It's been raining a lot since Mayor Bloomberg cut that ribbon.
We put a call in to David and Hammond to verify this ghost story, but their phones were busy. Could they have been on the receiving end of more threatening transmissions from Zeke?!
Tagged
curse
Ezekiel Marcus
friends of the high line
Joshua David
rain
Robert Hammond
Zeke Marcus
Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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