Work of healing that is solid as a rock

New York

THEY rise from the sand and shallows along the Hudson River like a Stonehenge built to the scale of a Manhattan apartment: a tight gathering of figures, rock perched on rock, that appear to be marching in a stately procession towards the George Washington Bridge.

The elegant stacks, skillfully balanced without wires or adhesives, have amazed and bewildered hikers and cyclists since late July, when they began appearing south of the bridge, beside the Hudson River Greenway in Washington Heights. As word has spread, the collection has become a Rorschach test for New Yorkers who make a special trip there and see in it what they will: a skyline, a chessboard, another of the many public art installations that dot the waterfront.