Wednesday, February 16, 2005

New York, New York —On February 12, 2005, at 8:30 a.m., New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg dropped the first piece of fabric in The Gates, a land art project by Christo and Jeanne Claude.

The artists installed 7,500 metal “gates” along 23 miles of pathways in New York City’s Central Park. Each gate supported a flag-shaped piece of saffron fabric. The project is scheduled to run from Feb. 12, 2005 through Feb. 27, 2005. The project is sometimes referred to as “The Gates, Central Park, New York, 1979-2005″ in reference to the time between the artists’ initial proposal and the present day.