Saudi Arabia reimagines New York’s Manhattan as NEOM’s The Line

The plan reimagines the densely populated New York borough as a single long structure, similar to NEOM’s The Line

Manhattan has been reimagined as a single long vertical city, in a similar manner to NEOM’s The Line in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia’s futuristic city of NEOM announced earlier this year The Line, a 170 km vertical city that can be travelled end to end in 20 minutes. The Line, part of the $500 billion NEOM project, will be built on a footprint of 34 square kilometres.

The new vision for Manhattan sees the borough’s 8.93 million people placed in a “zero gravity” 34 kilometre square vertical city which will enhance nature, according to a video on The Line’s website.

At NEOM, The Line will be a 200 metres wide, 170 kilometres long, and 500 metres above sea level. The development will be formed of two parallel buildings, with mirror as outer walls, rising 500 metres above sea level. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said “The Line” will embody “Zero Gravity Urbanism,” where city functions are layered vertically.

Announced in 2017, NEOM is Prince Mohammed’s plan to turn a remote region of the country into a high-tech semi-autonomous state that re-imagines urban life. It’s part of his plans to attract foreign investment and help diversify the Saudi economy away from a reliance on oil sales. 

The Line, as the car-free linear city that will form the backbone of Neom is known, could cost up to $200 billion to build, the prince said last year, though that was before the plan changed to include gigantic horizontal buildings