At long last, Metro’s Potomac Yard Station in Alexandria will open on May 19, the transit agency and the City of Alexandria announced on Wednesday.

The $370 million project along the Blue and Yellow lines is located between the National Airport and Braddock Road stations. It’s Metro’s 98th station overall, and the second infill station after NoMa-Gallaudet.

Metro is planning an opening event on May 19. Finishing work will continue in and around the station after opening, but the station will be ready for passengers.

The idea for a stop there started among Alexandria officials in the 1990s, but it wasn’t until the late 2000s that the city earnestly began planning for the addition. The stop has had several delays and was originally set to open in April 2022. Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson’s first home was near the proposed stop and he remembers getting a flyer about the “soon-to-open Potomac Yard Metro” back in 2001.

“This has been a long, long path for the city,” Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson said, comparing the project to a marathon. “Our community has never given up on this project and our community has been pushing for this station for a generation and beyond.

“They are why we are here to celebrate today.”

Take a look at the construction timelapse video of the Potomac Yard, courtesy of the City of Alexandria and the construction companies: https://t.co/cTDjX7zgZS pic.twitter.com/HVB0IRBOKd

— Jordan Pascale (@JWPascale) April 19, 2023

Potomac Yard is expected to spur development in the neighborhood with a Virginia Tech innovation campus and nearby Amazon offices. Several office, retail, and apartment buildings are under construction nearby. The station is eventually expected to support 26,000 new jobs and 13,000 new residents.

“This is our biggest economic development initiative. This is our biggest transportation initiative. This is our biggest climate initiative. This is our biggest infrastructure initiative,” Wilson said of the station. “This is a huge initiative for the city and it hit so many different policy areas for us as a community.”

Metro and Alexandria officials say they expect it to take years to a decade or two to fill out the neighborhood, but they point to NoMa as a good comparison, saying not much was there when it opened 18 years ago, but it’s near fully developed now. NoMa is now the 11th busiest station in the system.

“Come back here in ten years and we won’t recognize where we’re at,” Metro’s VP of Infrastructure Andy Off said.

The station is a unique design in the Metro system because of its impact on the historic view of the George Washington Memorial Parkway. Metro had to get approval for the design, which was partly inspired by the architecturally-famous Thorncrown Chapel in Arkansas. It uses big soaring beams and lots of light in the station. It also features natural stone and brown steel on the exterior to blend into the area, says Off.

“It is one of the best-looking stations in the system really,” Mayor Wilson said. “It’s a striking design that will have people excited.”

The views from the station are impressive as well, with a great view of the Washington Monument, planes taking off and landing from National Airport, the Potomac River, and Amtrak and freight train track next to the station.

“Quite frankly we might sell tickets for the Fourth of July (fireworks),” WMATA General Manager Randy Clarke joked.

Potomac Yard will be one of the first rail stations in the country to receive a “Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design” (LEED) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.

There are three entrances to the station. The east side entrance has elevators that will serve the Potomac Greens neighborhood. The west side entrances will take a bit of a walk to get to the platform – about 3-5 minutes. The bridges span across Amtrak tracks and a wetlands area. The southwest entrance was in question at one point, but ultimately built as part of incentive package from the state when Amazon arrived in the area with its second headquarters.

The new station is also bike accessible — just a four-minute ride off the Mount Vernon Trail via bike lanes. The station also has a bike storage room.

The City of Alexandria paid for the station through tax revenues and developer contributions generated by planned new development in the neighborhood, as well as state grants, loans, and regional sources.

The station was built on a 120 year old rail yard that was among the busiest in the country in its heyday. The yard was decommissioned in 1989, but the name remains.

Metro has no current plans to add more infill stations, but there is a spot along the Silver Line to accommodate a station near Wolf Trap, Off said.

This story has been updated throughout.