The NYC Waterfalls Project was another one of those massive art projects and unlike The Gates which was presented here a few years before, I had to say that this particular one intrigued me a little bit more.  The premise was how four gigantic structure’s would be assembled and take water from the East River via pipes and end up simulating the effect seen by natural waterfalls by pouring it out over the top.  The four locations were under the Brooklyn Bridge, another between Brooklyn’s piers #4 and #5, one on Governor’s Island and the last on Pier 35 in Manhattan.  This project was the brainstorm of Olafur Eliasson (a Danish/Icelandic artist).

This project ran from the end of June until the second week of October and that made sense since this was obviously a massive undertaking to put together.  Pictured above is the waterfall that was assembled under the Brooklyn Bridge.  It was the only one that I took photos of so I apologize for my slacking on this particular thing.

I didn’t have the steadiest of hands for these photos either for some reason.  When I did them I was standing down on the Pier 17 and the wind was rather strong and messing with my ability to focus on the task at hand.  Oh well, one cannot always be perfect.

Just a little bit of a closer shot of the falls as they cascade under the bridge.  I had to say that this one looked the coolest out of the ones that I actually saw.  I think I saw three of the four and was unimpressed by the one on the Manhattan side near those piers and the other Brooklyn one.  This one had the spirit of NYC’s interest in mind and was a sure fire hot attraction to those who enjoyed shoreline time on the opposite side or those affordable little cruise boat party things.

I guess I should have made a better effort to snare some images of the other waterfalls but alas that was not meant to be.  The exhibit was coming down within days after these few images were taken and I was starting to wonder about my sense of timing as I once again came in under the wire.  Like any project this one was not without its detractors and many in the communities where a falls was placed started screaming about it damaging the vegetation and greenery and any animal life.  My guess is the East River grime was having a slight effect on the plans and critters that wandered near there.  In the end I think everything worked out OK and that is a good thing.

The project came down on 10/13/2008 but the reference page about it can still be viewed by clicking HERE.