New York — The city of wonders now has everything: waterfalls! Four waterfalls conceived by Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson debuted June 26 in New York harbor where they will be part of the landscape until Oct. 13.

How do you concoct waterfalls in a flat terrain? You get the mayor's acquiescence; raise $15.5 million; get 30 permits from city agencies; erect tubular, industrial scaffolding and barriers so that small boats don't get sucked into the cascades; filter the water to protect the fish from a joy ride; and pump 35,000 gallons of water into the air every minute.

Terese Loeb Kreuzer / Travel Arts Syndicate (ENLARGE)

The $15.5 million project to create four waterfalls for public art is designed to stimulate tourism. The falls are turned on and off every day.

Terese Loeb Kreuzer / Travel Arts Syndicate (ENLARGE)

The faux falls, conceived by artist Olafur Eliasson, cascade on the Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn Bridge.

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Then you watch to see what happens.

Since this is public art, commissioned by the Public Art Fund, what you hope will happen is that the art will act like a giant cocktail shaker, bringing people together whose paths normally wouldn't cross.

From that perspective, the waterfalls are a success. People from Manhattan's Upper East Side and the borough of Queens, among other places, are venturing to Lower Manhattan to see this phenomenon. And since the lines to board harbor cruises can be long, they've ended up talking to each other.

But what New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg hopes for are tourism dollars comparable to the $55 million in 2005 when Christo and Jeanne-Claude erected "The Gates" in Central Park. The mayor is fond of art, but what he really understands is money.

The waterfalls, which range in height from 90 to 120 feet, are on the Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn Bridge; at the Brooklyn piers between Piers 4 and 5; in Lower Manhattan at Pier 35 north of the Manhattan Bridge; and on the north side of Governors Island.

They are turned on daily at 7 a.m. and turned off at 10 p.m. except for Tuesdays and Thursdays, when the show starts at 9 a.m. After sunset they are illuminated.

In a recorded introduction, played on Circle Line Downtown harbor cruises, Eliasson says, "The journey itself is something that I would claim is part of the project. It's a part of the artwork."

And that's the point. The Circle Line boat, for instance (the one that leaves from 42nd Street in midtown Manhattan), takes passengers around the island of Manhattan. It goes by the waterfalls, of course, but it also goes by Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, Castle Williams on Governors Island (a fort built as harbor defense just before the War of 1812), the old factories and warehouses of Brooklyn, the picturesque ruins of the 19th-century smallpox hospital on Roosevelt Island, nesting cormorants, Gracie Mansion (the mayoral residence), the bucolic northern end of Manhattan, the impressive span of the George Washington Bridge, and more.

Excursions to see the waterfalls by bicycle or on foot are likely to be even more revelatory of the city's many-layered past and multi-ethnic present.

The waterfalls are taking residents and visitors to parts of New York they may never have seen, or seen in quite the same way.

IF YOU GO

Getting there

Expect to pay about $260 round-trip airfare from Atlanta to New York City.

Where to stay

Several hotels are offering waterfall packages that pair accommodations with tours and meals. They include Hotel Plaza Athénée, Roosevelt Hotel, all five W hotels, Mandarin Oriental, Ritz-Carlton Battery Park and more. For information on these packages, www.nycvisit.com/waterfalls.

Information

• On the waterfalls, www.nycwaterfalls.org.

• On artist Olafur Eliasson, www.olafureliasson.net

• For New York City tourism information, www.nycvisit.com.

Terese Loeb Kreuzer is editor of the Travel Arts Syndicate.