NEW YORK (Reuters) – A new art installation that visitors can walk through on New York’s Governors Island features giant chain links grinding overhead, pointing to the legacy of slavery in the United States.

Artist Charles Gaines says he wanted to create a piece – which faces the Statue of Liberty and is roughly 100 feet (30.5 meters) long that reflected the sounds and history of the Mississippi River.

“The Mississippi River – which is the place that you talk about the history of American commerce, but also we can talk about the history of slavery,” said Gaines.

Reporting by Shannon Stapleton and Maria Alejandra Cardona

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles