After years of construction, the fully completed Georgetown Waterfront Park opened this week, showcasing a Potomac shoreline that had otherwise been ignored for years.

Once used as an industrial site and then a parking lot, the 9.5-acre park was rehabbed in two phases, the first completed in 2008. The second phase, which debuted on Tuesday, includes a large open fountain, large metal overhangs, benches, and concrete steps that descend into the Potomac. The project cost $24 million and was paid for by the D.C. government, federal government and private contributions.

According to the park’s website:

During America’s early days, the Georgetown waterfront thrived as a port lined with wharves and seagoing vessels. It later became an industrial site which survived until the 1960′s when these properties were condemned for a proposed interstate highway. Since then parking lots, concrete walls, hardy weeds cluttered the area 34th Street to 31st Street along the river. How do an old port and industrial site become a National Park?

In the 1960′s the Georgetown waterfront was condemned for an interstate highway which was never built. Citizen efforts to convert the waterfront into a park began in the 1970′s. Working with the National Park Service, these citizen planning groups made slow progress. In 1985, the District of Columbia transferred the waterfront land to the National Park Service. Ten more years passed, then, in the late 1990′s, plans for the park received new support from the Georgetown Waterfront Commission and new designs from Wallace, Roberts and Todd that would highlight the Potomac’s signature sport: rowing. The Georgetown Waterfont Park Commission, a volunteer organization, galvanized local residents, the rowing community, regional leaders, and the National Park Service in an effort which would bring the park to fruition.

More good pictures can be found at Georgetown Patch and the Georgetown Voice.