For Over the River, approximately 1,025 fabric panels will be suspended horizontally high above the Arkansas River, with designated interruptions, over a forty-mile range between Salida and Parkdale. Once permission is granted, the project will be installed for two weeks during the summer, in 2004 at the earliest. The fabric, suspended ten to twenty-three feet above the river, will be translucent when seen from below, affording rafters and kayakers a view of the sky. However, when seen from above, from trails or the highway, the panels will appear opaque. Through its intermittent installation, Over the River will seem to materialize and dematerialize, heightening the project's ephemerality. Christo and Jeanne-Claude have likened their approach to that of nomadic tent cultures: both create fabric structures that appear in the landscape, then disappear without a trace.

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