Nearly 20 years ago, more than 7,500 saffron-colored gates transformed Central Park, lining 23 miles of pathways with free-flowing fabric.

It was the work of world-renowned artists, the late Christo and Jeanne-Claude, who called the city their home.

Now, a new augmented reality experience, powered by the Bloomberg Connects app, allows visitors to virtually step into “The Gates,” which were on display for 16 days in 2005. 

"They were 16 feet tall and they had different widths depending on the widths of the walkways," said Vladimir Yavachev, director of projects for the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation and Christo’s nephew.

Nicholas Rubin's firm, Dirt Empire, created the AR experience, and partner studio Superbright built the app.

"The computer knows where the people are in space relative to the virtual gates and it creates a silhouette around them, so it looks realistic," Rubin said.

The AR experience runs through March 23. Meanwhile, The Shed in Hudson Yards is also hosting an exhibition featuring original artworks by Christo, including plans for “The Gates” and designs for other New York projects that never materialized.

More than 4 million people visited “The Gates” during its 2005 run. Christo and Jeanne-Claude spent 26 years trying to make the project happen before receiving approval from Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration.

"The most amazing thing to them was they really enjoyed looking at them," Yavachev said. "They really spent the time, they would cancel a lot of things or not make appointments to have the time to go around and visually enjoy ‘The Gates.’”