An installation art project that debuted this Thursday turned New York City’s historical harbor into a waterfall attraction for tourists, as four giant waterfall cascades have been installed there. The art piece was created by Danish-Islander artist Olafur Eliasson, who had worked on the project for about two years.

Eliasson said that the project, which is called New York City Waterfalls, is about people having to reconsider their relationship with nature and with space. New York City Waterfalls cost about $15.5 million to make, most of the money being raised from private funding, and is expected to make New York about $55 million from tourists that would come to visit it.

The waterfalls, which are between 90 and 120 feet high, are installed on the East River and the New York Harbor. The way they work is that water is pumped on a gigantic tray that is placed on top of each waterfall, from where it falls back in the river. Of course, security measures that prevent fish and birds from being caught and killed by the pumps were taken, and the same mechanism assures that people won’t see any random garbage disturbing the view as it falls together with water from the trays above the scaffolds.

And speaking of scaffolds, they haven’t been covered in any way, so that people could see the entrails of the mechanism that puts this massive amount of water into motion. This seems to be a cool idea since it both assures that the art piece will not be regarded at as kitsch, and supports the idea that New York is a highly industrialized area that needs to rediscover nature.