New York ? “The Gates” are open — all 7,500 of ’em.

The biggest art project in New York City’s history debuted Saturday in Central Park with the unfurling of saffron-colored fabric banners suspended in 16-foot-high frames, providing a splash of sunrise 26 years in the making.

“I came for this. It’s poetry in motion. It’s for the moment — a kind of Zen,” said Barbara Knorr, who came from Switzerland just to see the exhibit created by Christo and Jeanne-Claude.

“The Gates” is the pair’s first major project in New York City. It features 7,500 frames with hanging orange-tinted fabric, creating what the artists billed as “a visual golden river” along 23 miles of footpaths in the park.

The 16-day exhibit was expected to lure tens of thousands of art lovers and the merely curious to Manhattan.

It opened with cheers as Mayor Michael Bloomberg raised a hooked baton to pull a tab and release the first swatch of fabric from a sleeve at the top of a gate. A class of fourth-graders counted down the seconds.

By noon, more than 1 million square feet of fabric had been freed to flap in the stiff breeze.

The work’s official title — “The Gates, Central Park, New York, 1979-2005” — refers to the artists’ conception of the project 26 years ago. They are paying for the project themselves and estimate the cost could total as much $21 million.

“I can’t promise, particularly since this is New York, that everyone will love ‘The Gates,’ but I guarantee that they will all talk about it,” Bloomberg said Friday. “And that’s really what innovative, provocative art is supposed to do.”

Christo and Jeanne-Claude were reticent to discuss their creation.

A pedestrian walks his dog through The

“It’s very difficult,” Christo said. “You ask us to talk. This project is not involving talk. It’s a real, physical space. It’s not necessary to talk. You spend time, you experience the project.”

Their previous projects include “Wrapped Reichstag,” which wrapped the German Parliament building in Berlin in silvery fabric in 1995, and “The Umbrellas” of 1991, with 3,100 large umbrellas opened in valleys of California and Japan.

The husband-and-wife team also did a project in Loose Park in Kansas City, Mo., in 1978. Their “Wrapped Walk Ways” featured saffron-colored nylon fabric covering 2.7 miles of formal garden walkways and jogging paths.

Whether “The Gates” is deemed art, the work accomplished no small feat: It nudged thousands of New Yorkers out of bed on a freezing Saturday morning.

Ali Naqui had to be dragged to the unveiling by his fiancee, but he was smiling by the time he joined the crowd. “It’s a bit insane, but that’s why everybody is here,” he said.

One New York fourth-grader had her own art critique.

“It’s a waste of money, but it’s fabulous,” Shakana Jayson said. “It brings happiness when you look at it.”